What Goes Up
by Grykon
Summary: Continuing my alternative storyline for Scorpion TV Show Season 5 started in my story Head Space (for rent) followed by Oh What a Tangled Web We Weave. I do not claim ownership of the characters contained herein or related to the premise of the Scorpion TV show. This is completely unofficial and the story idea is solely mine. AU 35.003
1. Chapter 1

Paige sat on the edge of the tub in the loft bathroom, her head in her hands as she felt the nausea ease ever so slightly. They were supposed to be getting on the plane for Ireland in a few hours, she looked at her watch and it had been 5 minutes since she took the test. Her hand shook as she reached over to the wash basin and clumsily picked up the test monitor. With her eyes closed she brought it back towards her, was she ready for this? Was Ralph? Walter? She took a deep breath and opened her eyes as she focused on the small device.

"Pregnant" Her lips curled up in a slight smile as tears built up in her eyes and she let out an almost giddy breath. She heard a knock on the door, "Paige?" she heard Walter call out.

"The door is unlocked," she replied.

Walter turned the handle and stepped in as the door opened, his brow furrowed as he saw her sitting on the tub's edge. "Paige? Are you okay?" He asked as he sat down next to her.

She half turned and quickly threw her arms around him and buried her head in the crook of his neck, surprising him. He brought his arms around her slowly and she squeezed him tighter as she felt his arms embrace her. "Oh Walter," she said with tears in her voice.

"Paige? What is it? Are you okay?" He began to become worried.

Paige brought a hand up and wiped back the tears from her face, "I'm fine Walter, I-I think you are going to be a father."

Walter kind of paused for a moment turning over what she said and he pulled back a little. "I thought you already considered me a father for Ralph?" He said worried.

She looked at him for a moment and then pressed her forehead against his. "Of course you are, but I mean, I think I am pregnant now, with our child."

Walter's eyes opened wide as he stared into her face. His mind normally thinking on 3 or 4 different things at a time had hit a wall and his mind was completely blank for the first time in his life. His cheeks raised as his lips peeled back in the largest grin Paige had ever seen on his face. "Does that mean you are happy with that possibility?" She asked.

His heart seemed to explode as he pulled her tight against him. Tears ran down his cheeks as they continued to hug. "I never thought I could feel happier then I did the other day when we got married." He finally told her.

* * *

Happy and Sasha was going through her new wardrobe deciding what to take for their trip to Ireland. Of course Sasha wanted to take everything so it kind of became a game of tug of war between them and it quickly became more about playing then actually packing. Toby heard all the giggling and laughing going on as he stood outside the bedroom door with his back to the wall. Looking at his watch he knew they needed to really settle down and get Sasha's bag packed but he was loathed to interrupt. They had to make a stop by the adoption center before heading to the Garage for Ms Williams to conduct a short interview before signing the final paper allowing them to take Sasha with them to Ireland.

* * *

Cabe sat in his SUV outside of the company Allie worked for, waiting for her to return. He saw the door open and as Allie emerged he could tell something wasn't completely okay. He removed his hand from the key without turning it back on as he waited for her to get in the vehicle. She finally opened the door and quickly got in. "Is everything okay Allie?"

"Yes and no, my supervisor isn't happy about me being granted this vacation with so little notice plus I haven't been working here all that long. But since the owner agreed to it, there isn't much she can do to stop me but I am sure when I get back she will be a pain in my backside." Allie said as she kissed him, "Now let's get out of here and pick up the kids!" She grinned. Cabe smiled as he started the SUV and they took off.

* * *

Sylvester was boarding the bus to the Garage like he did most days he didn't either stay at the Garage or at Florence's. Most of the riders knew him and so were use to his quirks of wiping down the seats and arm pads. As the bus took off and accelerated to the street limit a figure walked up from the back of the bus and sat down behind Sylvester, "Well hello there old friend."

Sylvester's eyes shot wide open and sweat began to break out on his forehead, "Mark?"

"I heard you had a new girlfriend, I just had to see you personally and congratulate you in person. I would have congratulated you on your marriage to Walter's sister but if you recall I was being held against my will at the time." Collins told him.

"You were in prison for almost causing a nuclear emergency," Sylvester corrected him sternly.

"My, my, Sylvester, you never use to have such steel. Whatever happened to the sweet lovable man child?" Collins asked.

Sylvester turned his head, "What do you want Mark? You must want something to risk getting captured."

Collins just smiled, "Not much chance of that. I've led the Feds around the world so many times now it's really pathetic and here locally, well let's just say that I hacked their database and they have no clue who I am, let alone that I am wanted by the Feds." Collins looked out the window, "But you are right, there is something I want. While circumventing Walter and your computer servers trying to track me isn't difficult it is becoming tiresome."

"So I am going to make you a deal. You alter the algorithms searching for me and I will disappear again and never come back to haunt any of you ever again. Refuse and the first thing I will do is make sure that the happy little family getting off to their start won't suffer a refusal of adoption for little Sasha, just think how sad she and Happy will be when the authorities come and rip her out of Happy's arms and what that will do to both of their psyches." Collins told him.

Sylvester's eyes opened wide, "Mark, you wouldn't."

"Wouldn't I?" Collins responded, "Why wouldn't I? It's not like we're friends."

Sylvester turned halfway in his seat to look Collins in the face. "That was your choice, your decision. You continually played games with everyone's head. Well everyone but Walter. You never once treated us as friends or like we mattered to you, you continually looked down your nose at us. Walter was the only one you were congenial with, at least until he had you committed."

Collins looked down for a moment, "Perhaps, or perhaps it's because you were all jealous of me and what I could do that you weren't open to being friends so you saw everything I did as some kind of manipulation."

Sylvester kind of jerked his head back a bit, "You mean like you are trying to do now? Manipulate me, threatening Happy's family?"

Collins looked hard at Sylvester for a moment, "You really are surprising me Sylvester. You've really tapped some serious source of strength. But, my stop is coming up, do we have a deal?" Without waiting for a reply he reached up and pulled the wire to request a stop.

Sylvester shook his head, "I don't think so, I don't know what game you are playing, but I know if we let up for even a minute you will launch some kind of attack against us."

As the bus slowed down Collins stood up, "Too bad, well it's been nice seeing you again Sylvester; do say hello to the gang for me would you? Oh and tell your girlfriend congratulations for me too."

As Collins stepped out into the aisle way a figure that had gotten on at the last stop stood up and stepped up behind Collins. Collins felt something hard press into his back. "Mark Collins, you are under arrest," Cabe told him.

Collins looked up and closed his eyes. "How did you find me?" Collins asked.

Sylvester stood up, "That would be my doing. I wrote an app that all any of us had to do was launch it, it would tie our phones together notifying them where we were and broadcasted the audio from our phone to the others."

As Cabe handcuffed him Cabe told him, "Since I was already in the area, I was able to meet the bus at the last stop and you were too preoccupied with your conversation with Sly thinking you were too smart to get caught I walked right by you. Once you were no longer in a position where you could hurt Sly I was free to arrest you."

Cabe marched Collins off the bus as Sly followed behind them. Allie pulled the SUV up after the bus took off. They stood there waiting for a few minutes until a squad car pulled up. As the LAPD officers tried to put Collins into the back of their car he resisted and glared at Sylvester. "When I get out again, and I will, I'm coming for you first."

Sylvester bent down and got in Collins's face. "Try it and you'll regret it more then you now regret your decision to come talk to me." He then stood up and turned his back on him and walked over to Cabe's SUV and got in the back.

Cabe just smiled as he walked over and got into his SUV, "Sly, I'm really proud of you. And that app you made was a stroke of genius. Feels good knowing that nut job is going to be in jail while we're on vacation."

Sly smiled back, "Thanks Cabe, I appreciate it."

* * *

Paige started to walk over to the steps to go down to the main floor of the Garage when Walter stopped her, "Paige, maybe we should take the ramp?"

Paige looked at Walter and smiled then arched her eyes at him, she knew it was just a side effect of finding out she was probably pregnant. "Okay Walter, but let's keep things like this to a minimum, at least until we find out if I really am pregnant."

They made their way down the ramp and found Florence and Ralph talking excitedly. "Hey guys, what's up?" Paige asked.

"Mom," Ralph exclaimed as he ran over to them, "Sly's app worked and Grandpa Cabe arrested Collins."

"Why didn't our phones go off?" Paige asked.

Walter smacked his head and ran back up the ramp after dropping the two suitcases. Paige and Ralph watched after him both of them smiling. "Ralph, do you mind putting the suitcases over by the door please?" Paige asked him.

Ralph quickly grabbed them and half carried/dragged them over to the door as Louise walked up to Paige. "Good afternoon Paige." She embraced Paige and kissed her cheek.

"Good afternoon Mom," she replied with a smile. Paige had been so desperate for a positive mother figure in her life for so long. Louise had filled that void abundantly and she was truly grateful.

Louise still holding Paige's shoulders, and suddenly a smile parted her lips, she drew Paige back in and whispered "Paige dear, are you pregnant?" It took all her self control not to scream the question out.

Paige was shocked and it took her a few moments to finally respond, "W-We think so. I'll have to go see a Dr to make sure though. How did you know?"

Louise hugged her tighter whispering, "I've been around a lot of pregnant women in my life time, I'm so happy for you and Walter Paige."

The Garage door opened and Happy walked in carrying Sasha followed by Toby, "Can you believe it?" Toby nearly shouted, "Sly actually caught that lunatic!"

Happy put Sasha down and Sasha giggled as she ran over yelling "Auntie Paige!"

Paige stooped down and embraced her and picked her up kissing her cheek. "Hi Sasha, how are you today?"

"Happy, excited!" Sasha replied and kissed Paige's cheek in return.

Ralph walked up, "Hi Sasha," he said as he took her hand.

Sasha bent over in Paige's arms and kissed his cheek, "Hi Ralph."

"We brought the pick up, figured everyone could put their suitcases in the back of it, that would free up a lot of space and we'd only need Cabe's SUV and Paige's car to get everyone else to the airport." Happy told them.

Paige set Sasha down, "That's a really good idea Happy. Louise, Ralph and I can ride in the back of my car, Sean and Walter can ride in the front. Everyone else can ride in the SUV then.

Sasha smiled really big and held her arms out to Louise, "Grandma Weez!" Louise smiled and picked Sasha up and hugged her tightly then kissed her face several times before putting her down and she ran off with Ralph to find Grandpa Sean in the kitchen.

"Was there any problems getting that final paperwork from the adoption agency?" Paige asked Happy and Toby as they watched Sasha and Ralph run off.

Happy's smile erupted on her face as she shook her head no, "It actually went really smooth; Ms Williams had already signed it and just wanted to see us together with Sasha again. She was duly impressed with how much progress Sasha had made. Said she was going to do her best to push the adoption through as fast as she can. Maybe even by Halloween!"

Toby kept eyeing Paige, his mind working quickly looking at little body movements and suddenly it all clicked as Walter joined them handing Paige her phone. "You're pregnant!" He said in an excited whisper.

Paige and Walter's faces both went slack in shock and they looked at each other and back to Toby. "Fungus, knock it off of course she isn't preg-nant," her face went slack in shock as well as she looked at Paige and realized he was right.

"We don't know for sure, but the early test said I am and I am about three weeks late." Paige whispered back. "But I want to see a Dr and get a definitive test back before announcing it." She looked at Walter, "That reminds me, Mom figured it out as well." She finished as she turned her head and saw Sean and Louise now in the kitchen with Sasha and Ralph.

"If you want, I can write an order for a blood test and we can stop by a lab on the way to the airport. They can send the results to my email and we'll know for sure by the time we land in Ireland." Toby volunteered.

Paige looked at Walter and his eyes opened wider and he nodded his head quickly.


	2. Chapter 2

Toby walked over to his desk and took out his laptop. After a quick search he found the closest lab on the way to the airport and sent in an order for a blood test for Paige.

The Garage door opened and everyone turned and started clapping as Sly entered. Sly stopped dead in his tracks looking around at his friends as they clapped at him. Cabe started clapping as he entered the Garage as well. "Well done Sylvester!" They all hollered at him, his cheeks turned red.

"Thanks guys," he said simply as he quickly headed over to his desk and set his suitcase down and sat down. Florence walked over smiling at Sly.

"You did good Sylvester, I'm so proud of you," she told him as she bent over and wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed his cheek and then his lips. "Why do you think he wanted you to congratulate me?"

Sylvester shook his head, "No clue, with Mark it's hard to know what is going on inside of that rat's nest he calls a brain. Don't get me wrong, he's brilliant, but he's a planner and I don't mean like playing chess, he goes deeper than anyone I know."

Florence looked at him with her head cocked, "Surely not as far as you or Walter can."

Sylvester shook his head, "You don't understand the depth and depravity that his mind goes. The first time we had seen him in three years he even snuck some stuff past Walter. When he threatened Happy and Sasha's futures, he meant it. I wouldn't be surprised if he already had something lurking in the shadows just to mess it up. Trust me when I say he's a danger to everyone."

Florence was a bit stunned by the news as she watched him pull out his laptop and connect to the wifi. "What are you doing now?"

"Mark knew about our servers searching for him, somehow he knew and was able to circumvent the algorithms without the algorithms even detecting him in the first place. It's like arguing which came first, the chicken or the egg without taking evolution into account. Either he snuck some code into our system that erased or prevented the algorithms data from being written or he hacked in a backdoor and did it himself. I intend to find out what he did and how and hopefully figure out if he has any traps set up to hurt us." Sylvester told her as he logged into the Garage servers.

Cabe sat his and Allie's suitcases down next to the door where Happy, Toby and Sasha's cases sat. "So what's the plan gang, who's driving?"

"We thought everyone could put their suitcases in my truck, you could drive Allie, Sly and Florence; Walter could drive Paige, Ralph and his parents." Happy told him.

Cabe nodded his head as he put his arm around Allie, "Sounds like a plan to me. I've already called TSA; we'll get a pass through at the airport. I've just got to log into my Homeland account and file a report on capturing Collins. Did you get his data entered back into LAPD's database Sly?"

Sly nodded, "I had it done before they would have gotten him to jail. I also flagged it so they wouldn't make the mistake of allowing him around any type of computer."

"Walt, can I use your laptop to log into Homeland?" Cabe asked. Walter nodded his head and walked over and took his laptop out of his backpack and placed it on his desk.

Paige looked around the Garage, "Is anyone hungry? We could order some pizza," looking at Walter and smiling, "or Kovelsky's."

Walter looked up at Paige and grinned, "Pizza would be fine with me," he said surprising them all.

Toby grabbed his chest and fell out of his chair. Sasha let out a gasp and began crying when Toby didn't move immediately. Happy rushed over to her and scooped her up, "It's okay sweetie, Daddy was just being stu-," she paused for a moment as she thought about her next word for a moment, "silly. He was just being silly, see, he's okay," they watched for a moment as Toby got up and waved at them, "For now." Happy leveled a gaze on him that caused him to shrink back into his chair and turn his head so he couldn't see her.

Sasha looked at Happy for a moment then smiled real big and hugged her neck tightly, giggling.

Sly looked up from his laptop and over at Walter, "Walter, would you come look at this?"

Walter nodded as he walked over to Sylvester and Florence. "What is it Sylvester?"

"The data file that should be holding all the possible findings on Mark is completely empty, yet the counter in the program shows it had encountered 781 possible findings since the trial. That shouldn't be possible." Sylvester told him.

Walter looked at the data Sylvester had on his screen and his brow furrowed. "That's odd, the program's algorithms file is 30 mbs larger than it should be, unless you added to it?"

Sylvester shook his head, "I haven't added anything to it since just before the trial."

"The data file could be my fault," Ralph spoke up.

Walter looked at him puzzled, "Ralph?"

"I adapted your algorithm technology to search for DNA matches to speed up the search for Collins. I might have over looked something that caused it not to write the data file properly. I'm sorry." Ralph looked down like he expected to get scolded.

Walter looked at Sylvester, "That's inspired thinking Ralph, might have been better had you spoken to Sly or myself before implementing it, but its okay. Why don't you, Sly and I go over it now and see if you're right about the data file."

Ralph smiled and nodded his head. As he walked around the desk and pulled up the code he wrote for the servers.

Paige hung up after placing an order for a pizza delivery. Paige walked over to Toby, checking to see where everyone was at that moment, "Um, let's say I am pregnant," she said softly.

Toby interrupted her smiling, "Okay, you're pregnant," he said in the same soft voice, with that silly grin he had whenever he told one of his jokes.

Paige rolled her eyes as she continued, "Is it safe for me to fly to Ireland if I am?"

Toby got serious, "Absolutely, usually flying is only restricted around the thirty sixth week, mostly from the stand point of going into labor while in flight. You and baby will be just fine."

Paige leaned over and touched his hand, "Thank you." Then turned and walked over to sit at her desk.

Time seemed to pass fairly quickly and the smell in the Garage was instantly improved as the pizzas arrived.

Paige had called "the boys" several times now for pizza but Walter, Ralph and Sly were still intent on Sly's laptop going over the code that Ralph had written. She was just about to put some pizza on plates and take it to them.

"I was right," Ralph said, "I typed the wrong filename, reversing two of the characters." Ralph finished while pointing at the screen.

"That means, the complier should have created code to open the file so all the data should still be on the server drive!" Sylvester exclaimed.

Sylvester did a quick search on the server hard drive located the file and all the missing data that was in it. "There it is, awesome; I'll copy the data to my hard drive and go through it once we're on the plane." Sylvester promised.

Walter nodded his head, "Send a copy to my laptop as well, it'll give me something extra to do when everyone goes to sleep on the flight."

Sylvester nodded as Walter and Ralph made their way to the kitchen, "I really am sorry Walter, I was only trying to help."

Walter stopped walking and put his hand on Ralph's shoulder as he got down on one knee. He looked Ralph in the eyes, "Ralph, you didn't really do anything wrong. It was a simple mistake and that's how we learn sometimes. I've made some pretty big mistakes in my life growing up and I've made some bigger ones as an adult. Thankfully as an adult I've usually had people with me to help me mitigate any fallout over the mistakes. You already apologized and you don't need to do so again. Okay?"

Ralph smiled, "Thanks Dad."

Walter's mouth dropped open a bit and he just stared at Ralph and he felt tears well up in his eyes and he pulled Ralph to him and hugged him tightly. Paige was just close enough that she heard the exchange and she quickly turned away from everyone and dabbed at her eyes all the while a large smile on her face.

Everyone was sitting around the tables, the remains of the four pizzas sitting on top of the stove; they were all for the most part sharing stories and memories when Cabe looked at his watch. "I hate to break this up guys, but even with the pass through we really should get going."

After checking their watches they all agreed and quickly they closed up the Garage and put the trash out and got the suitcases loaded into Happy's truck bed. Just before getting in their vehicles Paige mentioned she had to make a stop and gave the address of Quest Diagnostic to Cabe since he was going to lead them to the airport.

* * *

After Paige had entered the facility Allie looked at Cabe, "Not really trying to be nosy, but why does Paige need to stop here?"

Cabe shook his head, "No clue really, some kind of last minute shot for traveling maybe?"

Sylvester spoke up from the back, "Well according to their website they do blood and urine tests, no employer based testing though."

Cabe looked at him through the rearview mirror, "That's rather odd then. Has Scorpion been contracted by someone who maybe needs drug testing verification for the contract?"

Sylvester shook his head, "Not that I have heard."

As Paige came out and got back into the back of her car with Ralph and Louise Allie joked, "Maybe she thinks she's pregnant." She laughed a light laugh but then saw the look on Cabe's face. "Something wrong Cabe?"

He just grinned, "Nope, not a thing," he replied as he started his SUV and pulled out of the parking spot and to the parking lot exit. With both of the other vehicles behind him he waited until enough of a break in traffic arrived and then pulled out keeping an eye on the other two vehicles to be sure they got out.

* * *

They pulled up outside the terminal with about an hour before departure; they got out and curb checked most of their bags. "Agent Gallo, Mike Stern TSA, these agents will park your vehicles for you if you like and I will escort you and your family through to the departure gate. We'll keep your keys in our office when you return."

Cabe nodded, "That's very kind you guys Mike, thank you, please call me Cabe."

Mike smiled, "Cabe it is then." He took the keys to the cars and gave them to the other agents and then turned to lead them through the airport. "As I understand it, most of your family here is also Team Scorpion?"

Cabe nodded, "Yep, wouldn't know what I would do without them." Cabe grinned.

"It's a real honor to meet you guys, I owe you guys." Mike told them.

Cabe looked thoughtful for a moment, "For what?"

"Remember when you helped save the Governor's daughter? My niece was one of the other children that sicko attacked. I understand grief, but to take your pain out on an innocent like that. Well, let's just say if I ever get the chance to meet him in a locked room without a witness, only one of use would walk out." Mike told him.

Cabe nodded his head, "I understand that feeling all too well. I'm really glad the team was able to make things right for the kids."

They were escorted into a stairwell and down to a sub level then on down a passageway. "Giving us a scenic tour?" Cabe joked.

Mike laughed hard at that, "No, sometimes the other passengers get a little out of sorts when we pass people through. This way if any of them are on your plane they won't be sour at you."

Cabe laughed as they passed through a check point in the passageway.

"This is usually reserved for certain diplomats and couriers." Mike told them as he unlocked a door and led them up another stairwell and back out into the airport main level. "Now, no one is any the wiser." He laughed again. "Your gate is the third one on the left, there is a check in terminal and there is also an airline rep there if you prefer. Tell her Mike sent you." He laughed as he shook everyone's hand. "Guys it was a real privilege meeting you and bringing you out here. Have a great trip and a wonderful vacation guys."

Sasha's eyes were so large, all the people and noise had her thoroughly entertained. She wanted to walk but Happy wasn't taking any chance someone might try and grab her. So while she wasn't exactly happy, she was content knowing she was loved. As they turned into the waiting area for the gate Sasha saw the plane as it was being moved into position. She pointed "Plane? Big," she exclaimed.

Happy smiled and kissed her cheek, "That's an A330 Airbus Sasha; it can carry up to 335 people or about 70 tons of weight. We'll be cruising on it at about 600 mph at an altitude of 30,000 ft, that's 6 miles in the air. Isn't that cool?"

Sasha smiled and nodded.

Toby leaned over and whispered, "You do know she probably just agreed with you, most of that went right over her head." He grinned, "Get it? Right over her head? That never gets old."

Happy looked at him, "Fungus, your about to go right over our heads."

Toby just laughed as he hugged them both.

Sean walked up to the young lady at the terminal, "We'd like to check in please." He told her.

She smiled as she looked up, "Of course sir, do you have your tickets?"

He handed her all the tickets, "Oh, you're the O'Brien family? Great, if you all will take a seat right over there where the rope is blocking off those seats, as soon as the plane is ready, we'll board you first. Aer Lingus really appreciates your understanding the other day with the overbooking issue." She handed back the tickets with the boarding passes.

They all went over and took the seats by the ropes; Sean leaned over to Louise, "I feel like I'm a prize hog in the butcher's window waiting to be butchered."

Louise smiled at Sean and patted his hand.


	3. Chapter 3

The ramp door opened as a stewardess from the plane emerged and stood by as the passengers began disembarking the plane. Sasha and Happy were watching the ground crew as they removed a number of containers and then began loading a whole new set into the cargo bay of the plane. A truck with a yellow flashing light pulled up along the plane and a man got out of the cab and climbed on the truck and hooked up a hose to the wing of the craft.

It wasn't long before the young lady from the counter walked over to them, "Excuse me Mr. O'Brien, if you and your family are ready, we'll board you first."

The group took up the first four rows of the center of the business class section and two sets of double seats on the right hand side of the plane. They were all duly impressed by the staggered set up with the seats affording them plenty of leg room and amazingly their seats could completely recline. Sasha was fascinated; from the audio muffling of the plane as compared to the walkway and the waiting area to the sound of the containers being moved around in the cargo area under the floor. Finally she pressed her ear against the arm rest listening to the vibration of the craft's engines as the pilots started them.

Sasha became excited after the plane had taxied out to the runway and the pilots threw the throttle to max thrust and the engines screamed as the plane began moving down the runaway. The nose lifted up into the air and Sasha was clapping and she let out a whoop as the plane completely left the ground and giggled as she hugged Happy. Everyone around her could only smile at her enthusiasm.

Everyone had settled in for the flight, some turned to their own electronics some took advantage of in flight video and some were reading or working on projects for work. Paige was reading one of her course books for her summer college class as the plane crossed the Rockies, Walter had finished some coding he wanted to get done for one of their clients and had turned to the data file from the algorithm search on Collins.

He felt his phone vibrate, so he reached in his pocket and pulled it out. It showed he'd received a text message so he opened it up and he looked over at Paige in surprise, but she didn't act like she saw him but there was a mischievous smile on her face. He looked at his phone and it clearly said she had sent him a text, so he opened it. "Walter, have you ever heard of the Mile high club?"

Puzzled he typed back "No." This communication was most inefficient but he didn't actually care since it was with Paige.

Paige seemed to be oblivious that he sent back a text, just kept reading her book and Walter's mind soon dragged him back to this laptop and the data file, just as he was getting back into it his phone vibrated again. His mouth made uncharacteristic smile and he looked over at Paige and she sat there, still 'reading' but she still had that same smirk on her face. He reached back into his pocket and pulled out his phone and saw she had sent another message. "I think once we're out over the Atlantic, you and I should join that club."

Walter started to say something but he saw Toby looking over at them so he sat for a moment trying to figure out how to respond. He tapped into the plane's wifi with his laptop and did a quick search on "Mile high club." His eyes bugged and his mouth opened and he quickly closed his browser window and looked around and then at Paige, still she sat there reading, her mischievous smile even bigger now. He grabbed his phone quickly and typed "Seriously? I think I would like that a lot."

Again she just sat there reading. Not paying any attention to her phone, wherever it was. Walter actually had a little sweat on his forehead and he found it a bit difficult to focus his attention back on the data file. He was paying more attention watching Paige through his peripheral vision. Every time she seemed to move he look over but she would just stretch or adjust her position a little. It was almost an hour before Walter regained some control over himself and he actually opened his laptop and started going through the data file. Almost on cue his phone vibrated again.

He closed his eyes and smiled as he pulled his phone out again. As he swiped it and looked there was a message from Toby, a flicker of annoyance crossed his face and he looked over at Toby sitting with Ralph and he just smiled and pointed at his phone. Walter opened his message, "Hey boss, what's wrong over there? You had a lot of perspiration on your forehead a little bit ago, everything okay?"

Walter rolled his eyes and looked at him and nodded his head. Toby just laughed, which left him wondering if he had somehow gotten a hold of Paige's phone and was messing with him. He put his phone back in his pocket and sat there for a few minutes trying to decide if it had been a joke or if it had actually been Paige when his phone vibrated again. He pulled it back out and checked and this time it was a message from Paige, it was just a winking emoji face. He looked at Paige who this time sat holding her phone looking at him and she winked as she put her phone back into her purse and went back to reading her book.

Walter sat there thinking how hard this learning curve for a real relationship actually was.

Cabe and Allie were half kicked back relaxing in their seats holding hands, "Can you believe this is the first time I haven't ridden in coach?" Cabe asked her.

Allie smiled, "Well the government has never been big on spending money on comfort for lackeys."

Cabe looked over at her for a moment trying to decide if he should be insulted but he just smiled, "Yea, that's true." A stewardess walked out and began taking dinner orders from everyone. Sadly for Walter (and thankfully for everyone else) there were no fermented fish on the menu.

The sky was growing dim; Happy was reclining while holding a sleeping Sasha and Toby had switched seats so he could be closer to his ladies. Ralph and Sylvester were playing chess against each other. Florence got up and walked around the cabin to stretch her legs. Paige got up and walked with her on her second pass through. "Everything okay Florence?" Paige asked her.

Florence nodded, "Oh yea, I'm not use to sitting for so long, I mostly stand in my lab since I am constantly working with different compounds and fluids."

Paige nodded her head, "What game of chess are they on now?"

Florence looked at Sylvester as they passed by, "Would you believe me if I told you they were on still on the same game?"

"Three hours?" Paige said incredulously.

Florence nodded her head, "I really love Sylvester, but chess, would be a hard pass for me." She laughed. Paige laughed with her. "Hey, I don't mean to step out of line and you can tell me it's none of my business, but, is everything okay? We were all concerned about you when we stopped at that diagnostic lab."

Paige smiled, "Oh no, that's fine. There's nothing wrong, I'm fine. I just needed to drop something off for a possible future case." She stretched the truth about as far as she could she thought.

Florence laugh, "Oh good, I'm glad to hear it, you wouldn't believe it, Allie kind of joked that you might be pregnant."

Paige's eyes went wide; she forced a nervous laugh to cover. "Will this be your first vacation out of the US?" She asked Florence.

Florence nodded, "To be honest I haven't even been on a vacation since I left home. Oh a day off here or there, but I was constantly studying in college and once I graduated I've been so focused on building my business. I'm really so glad I took that space on the other side of the Garage wall. I was never much of a people person because much like the guys, I was always treated badly by normals so I closed myself off and dedicated myself to work. But now, with you guys, I've not only learned there are people out there I can trust and relax around, I've found a really great guy and a family."

Paige smiled, "I'm really glad you did as well. I know we all kind of got off on the wrong foot but you've been a big asset for Scorpion, I'm really glad you are working with us."

Florence's face got serious, "May I ask you something?"

Paige looked at her puzzled, "Of course."

"When Sylvester was talking with that Collins fellow, he said something about wanting Sylvester to tell me congratulations. Do you understand that? Sylvester seemed rather reluctant to really discuss it, other then saying that Mark is very manipulative," Florence told her.

Paige nodded, "I believe he was saying it as more of a threat. Sly's right, he is very manipulative. Everyone but Walter gave me the run down on him, what he is like the first time I met him. He played game after game with the guys. He even slipped part of his ploy past Walter. He is definitely the wrong type of person to trust in any capacity." Florence nodded as they continued their walk.

"Take that Sylvester!" Ralph said as his bishop took Sylvester's queen, "Check."

Sylvester watched in misery as on his laptop Ralph's bishop walks up this his queen; they fight for a moment before the bishop pushes the blade on his staff through the queen's chest. "No," Sylvester sighs.

Paige stopped and she watched a little horrified at the violent but old graphics animation from the old computer program Battle Chess. "What is this you're playing?" She demanded.

Sylvester immediately got defensive, "It's just an old computer chess game called Battle Chess, Ralph and I updated it so we could play each other over a network or the internet. Definitely less gore then most games in the last 20 years."

Paige just glared at him for a moment and just as he cringed, "I know Sly; I was just giving you a hard time." Sylvester let out a sigh accepted the hug she gave him.

Paige sat back down in her seat as Florence continued her walk. Leaning over in her seat towards Walter she asked, "Find anything interesting yet?"

Walter looked at her, his eyes opened wide and he nodded, "I've made some notes for Cabe to pass on to Homeland. It looks like he's actually been living not far from the Garage if you can believe it. Ralph's adaptation of my DNA algorithm is amazing. If it hadn't been for a simple letter swap he made on the file name we probably would have caught him months ago. Well provided we had actually checked the server. We both actually became a bit slack on it after the trial was no longer a threat to Cabe."

Paige crooked her finger at Walter and he leaned over towards her. She grabbed his shirt collar and pulled him a bit closer and then kissed him a number of times, each one lasting a bit longer then the previous. She finally released his collar, pulled back and smoothed his hair from where she ran her fingers through it during the kiss. Her eyes twinkled, "Just a preview of what's to come over the Atlantic," she whispered.

Walt's mind had gone splat and he sat there still leaning over the arm of the seat staring at Paige. Toby leaned in from behind them, "Hey Walt, what's up?" He asked with that large silly grin of his.

Walt looked back at Toby and he didn't trust himself to say something so he sat back up right and just faced the front, his neck and cheeks were a nice rosy hue.

Louise had turned to say something to Allie when she saw Paige kissing Walter and she just sat there and witnessed the whole scene with a big smile on her face. She could see the love between her son and her daughter. Her heart was full; she knew that Megan's hope for Walter had finally come to pass. Walter finally found love and was reciprocating it. A single tear coursed down her cheek as she turned back around in her seat.

Sean looked over at his wife and saw the tear, "Everything okay dear?"

Louise nodded as she took Sean's hand, "I was just watching the love between Walter and Paige, it just made me so happy to see how much he has grown emotionally."

Sean nodded, "I wish I had known when he was a boy what I know now. Maybe I could have helped him more; certainly we wouldn't have butted heads so much." He grew a bit melancholy.

"Sean dear, you can't think like that, remember what you told Paige dear? We can't carry our mistakes and other garbage from the past with us, nor should we borrow trouble from the future and just live in the present." Louise reminded him.

Sean smiled, "You're right dear."

As Florence came around again she saw that the chess game was finally over. She stopped and sat down. Sylvester's eyes were closed so she figured he had lost and was mentally replaying the game. She reached out and gently stroked his cheek, "Sylvester?"

His eyes opened and he looked at her and saw the love in her eyes and he leaned over and they kissed. As they parted Florence took his hand, "I take it Ralph got you?"

Sylvester nodded, "He's sneaky, Walter and I are a good match, it's hard to say for sure at the start of a game which of us would win for sure, but Ralph, he's got a level of crafty I've never seen. He's a Grandmaster for sure, probably the top of us all. If he decides to compete and depending on when, he'll be recognized as the youngest ever."

"He's really that good?" She asked him.

Sylvester nodded.


	4. Chapter 4

The noise in the plane was slowly dying out as passenger after passenger started falling asleep. Walter was deep into the data file when his phone vibrated again. At first he started to ignore it but then something told him he should check it. He looked over at Paige as he drew the phone out only to see she had gotten up without him noticing. He looked quickly about the cabin as he turned his phone on. He opened his messenger app and saw she had indeed sent him a message. "Meet me at the front most restroom. Now," he stared at the message and again looked around, seeing everyone in the Business section sleeping he quickly moved out of his seat and moved forward past the first galley and coat closet.

The sign in the door announced that the restroom was occupied and he stood there for a moment, his breathing short but rapid. He raised his hand slightly, made a fist and tapped gently against the door. He saw the sign flip as he heard the lock disengage. The door opened slightly and he quickly pulled it open a bit more and seeing Paige standing inside grinning he quickly entered and closed the door and locking it. Paige wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him as he slid his arms around her waist.

Walter's hands roamed across Paige's body as their kiss continued and their tongues began to playfully fight with each other. Walter's hands finally reached her thighs and he pulled the short hem of Paige's skirt up as he took a firm hold on her waist and then picked her up and sat her upon the small wash basin and she began unbuttoning his shirt. Both of their hearts began beating faster and their breathing increased as the adrenalin fueled their bodies. As Walter's shirt landed on the toilet lid he took hold of her panties and she stopped unbuttoning her blouse long enough to lift up as he pulled them off. Their kiss continued as Walter took over removing her blouse and finally he unhooked her bra and it too joined the other clothes on top of the toilet lid.

* * *

Cabe felt someone shake his shoulder, "Sir, excuse me for disturbing you. Are you Agent Cabe Gallo of Homeland?"

Cabe's eyes flashed opened and he looked about finally settling on a stewardess standing there. "What the, can I help you?"

She smiled, "I'm sorry for waking you, are you Agent Cabe Gallo of Homeland?" Cabe nodded his head and showed her his badge. "Our pilot asked me to bring you up to the flight deck sir."

Cabe nodded again as he slid his slippers off and his shoes back on. Allie was asleep so he just let her sleep and followed the stewardess. When they got to the door to the flight deck she entered a code and when the light turned green she opened the door and gestured for him to go on in. The flight deck was fairly dark and quite pretty with the different lights of the instrument panels shinning. "Cabe Gallo, Homeland," he said a little subdued.

The pilot half turned in his seat, "John Edwards, this is Charlene Jones my co-pilot. Sorry to disturb you Agent Gallo, after communicating with our closest authority we were advised you and team Scorpion were on board."

Cabe inwardly groaned, 'couldn't they do anything without something coming up?' He thought. He nodded his head, "That's right, what's going on guys?"

"Twenty minutes ago we received this message." John told Cabe and he pushed a button, and a robotic voice spoke, "Greetings, this is not a test or a drill, this is live. Somewhere aboard your plane is a bomb. You have now entered into international waters. Do not deviate from your flight plan, if you do by more than a mile, the bomb will go off. Do not drop below thirty thousand feet or the bomb will go off. Do not slow down below six hundred mph or the bomb will go off. In five hours you will be notified where to send the ransom, the authorities have that long to put together five hundred million United States Dollars and then within thirty minutes of the deadline to transfer that money to the account you'll be given. Failure to do so will result in your plane exploding when it runs out of fuel resulting in loss of all lives. After you receive the account information there will be no further communications."

Cabe scowled, "Wonderful."

There was a beeping sound and John looked at his communications panel, "Another message."

He pressed the screen, the robotic voice announced, "To demonstrate our resolve and show mercy," a muffed explosion was heard down below and the plane shook as the autopilot went offline. The plane immediately began to drop and John and Charlene quickly grabbed their yokes and pulled back and the plane leveled out and then began to climb back up to their cruising altitude.

John flipped a switch on the console, "This is Captain John Edwards, Aer Lingus flight EI 144, declaring an emergency. We have experienced a detonation of some kind and have lost autopilot."

Walter was tucking his shirt in as Paige touched up her makeup when they heard the explosion and the plane dropped, Walter's shoulder hit the wall and he half turned grabbing Paige and trying to brace between the walls with one leg and his shoulder until the plane leveled off. They quickly unlocked the door and exited the restroom.

A stewardess was sitting on the floor holding her head as they both moved over to check on her. She had a pretty nasty bump and Walter ran back to their seats to check on everyone. Everyone looked fine but fear was in everyone's eyes then he noticed Cabe was missing. "Toby, a stewardess hit her head up front, come check her out. Allie, where's Cabe?"

Allie shook her head, "He wasn't here when I woke up," she said worriedly.

As Toby and Walter moved up to where Paige was with the stewardess they saw the flight deck door open and Cabe stepped out. "Cabe what happened?" Walter asked as Toby knelt down beside the stewardess.

Cabe gestured for Walter to come forward; Paige got up and walked up with him. "Just over twenty minutes ago the plane received a message, a five hundred million dollar ransom demand."

Walter looked at Paige and then Cabe, "I take it the explosion we heard was a demonstration of their willingness to see this through?"

Cabe nodded, "The plane lost its autopilot function as a result of it."

Walter looked up towards the ceiling his eyes darted back and forth for a moment, "What's the timeline, stipulations?" He finally asked.

Cabe looked down at Toby checking the stewardess. "They have just over four and a half hours to put together the money and then they will be given routing information and they will have another thirty minutes to deposit the money. The plane has to maintain at least six hundred mph, we can't go any lower than thirty thousand feet and we can't deviate more than one mile from our flight plan."

"That would put us close to Dublin; the flight will probably have us circle out over the eastern coast before coming back in to land." Walter told them.

"I know you got to have some ideas already Walter," Paige told him as she took his hand in hers.

Walter looked into her eyes and nodded, "I'm certain that whoever is behind this they don't have anyone on board. It's possible they are tapping into the plane's wifi but I am certain too that everything that happened is on a timer; the main bomb probably taps into the plane's systems for data to analysis to determine if it should explode. If someone was doing it remotely they would have to anticipate if the plane was changing something that would violate their terms."

"So the million dollar question, what is our first move Walter?" Cabe asked.

"I think first we should turn off the wifi if it can be completely shut down and not just for passengers. I could certainly hack it to determine if anyone was spying on us but I think just turning it off would be more effective. If it can't be completely shutdown then I'll hack it instead. We need to get Happy down stairs to investigate the extent of the damage, if there is any collateral damage to other systems besides the autopilot." Walter explains.

Cabe pulled the door the rest of the way open and gestured and the three of them stepped into the flight deck. "Captain Edwards, co-pilot Jones, this is Walter O'Brien, head and founder of Scorpion and his bride Paige, she acts as a intermediary with what they call normals or as we might say those with IQ's below genius level."

"Sorry Mr. and Mrs. O'Brien, we've kind of got our hands full right now to greet you properly," John told them.

"No problem Captain, and Paige and Walter is fine. I assume there is an access point to get into the cargo/machinery area down below? I want our engineer to investigate to make sure there is no collateral damage. Do you have instrumentation that can confirm if it is safe for her to enter the cargo area?" Walter asked.

John nodded his head, "Let me get Brian up here, he can show you where to access it and according to the computer everything is nominal with the exception of the autopilot."

"I'm sure that is intentional, cut down on the chance of you guys being able to figure out where the bomb is and if it is possible to defuse or remove from the plane. The on board wifi, can it be shut down completely or just to the passengers?" Walter asked.

"It can only be shut down to the cabin but the home office has restricted access to the internet, we can only communicate with them through the wifi, also there are a number of systems that use it," Charlene spoke up.

"Hey Brian, we need you up on the flight deck, be advised we do have one law enforcement and 2 civilian contractors up here as well." John said into his headset.

"I've advised the home office and tower control of our current status by the way. Tower control wanted us to divert to Iceland but I informed them we were stuck on our present flight path." John told Cabe.

Cabe nodded, "Good, did your home office say what they were going to do?"

Charlene grunted.

John smiled, "Let's just say that if we make it out of this, it's going to be because of Scorpion's abilities. They are refusing to meet the demands; that's why they've embargoed the wifi so we can't even alert others what is going on."

"Bet me," Cabe said as he went back out to his seat and got his travel bag out of the over head compartment.

Allie looked at him, "What's going on Cabe?" Her voice was fairly alarmed. While not fearful of flying, the explosion certainly unnerved her.

He smiled at her, "We're getting everything figured out, I just need my Sat phone so I can communicate with Homeland and keep them apprised. Opening it he pulled out his sat phone out, gave her a kiss and squeezed her hand then turned and then went back up to the flight deck door. A male steward was walking by at that time, "You must be Brian." He said.

The man just nodded, "Agent Cabe Gallo, Homeland," Cabe reached out his hand and Brian shook it. They noticed that Toby had the stewardess sitting in a jump seat with an ice pack on her head, when they got to the door to the flight deck. "Is she going to be okay Doc?"

Toby nodded, "Pretty sure she will be, probably a slight concussion but that's all."

Cabe nodded, "Go back and tell Happy to come up here then, we're going to need her expertise for this." Toby nodded and went back to their seats.

"Even if we had parachutes by keeping us over thirty thousand feet and over six hundred miles an hour we couldn't use them to escape the plane." Walter was telling Paige as Cabe and Brian entered the cabin.

"Captain, I'm here," Brian said.

"Brian, the plane has experienced an explosive device that has disabled the autopilot. This is Walter O'Brien and his wife Paige; he heads up team Scorpion, problem solvers. Agent Gallo with Homeland is here as well." John told him.

"We met outside of the flight deck Captain," Cabe told him.

"Brian we are in a bit of trouble, the entire flight is also being held hostage as well. I need you to show Walter how to access the cargo bay so they can investigate the damage and assess the situation." John explained.

There was a knock on the door and Cabe opened the door and seeing Happy he opened it wider so she could enter as well. "Oh good, Happy's here, Brian, give me a minute to bring her up to date and then you can show us the access point." Walter said as he stepped out of the flight deck with Happy.

"Not good," Happy said as Walter finished explaining the situation to her.

Walter looked at her, "So what's your first impression about the explosion that disabled the autopilot?"

Happy looked down at the floor, "Well my first thought is it probably just took out the power cable to the computer itself, something small that wouldn't jeopardize the plane so they could get their money. If that's all, I can probably bypass the cable that is burnt and get power back to the computer."

Walter nodded, "That was my thought as well. I'm concerned that they might have also installed cameras in the cargo bay so if they could see us working down there they could retaliate setting the bomb off early."

"I'm not so sure Walt, unless the money means nothing to them. Most likely if they see us they either have another small charge explosive to set off to force us to stop messing around or they would just send another message warning us to stop." Happy told him, "But that's more of Toby's field than mine."

Walter nodded, "No, I concur with your logic. I'll go hack the wifi and see if I can find any connections that might be cameras or microphones. You get Brian and have him show you the access point, but give me a few to check the system before going down there." He turned and went back to his seat after she nodded her head.

Happy knocked on the door and Brian opened it, "Okay, can you show me the access port to the cargo bay now?"

Brian nodded and stepped out along with Cabe who was on his sat phone briefing the on duty suit who promised he was passing all information on to Katharine Cooper.

They heard the speaker system kick on, "Good evening everyone this is Captain Edwards. Sorry about the bumpy ride a short bit ago. The plane suffered a minor equipment malfunction. I apologize for not updating you sooner but I wanted to be sure everything was okay. Right now we are on course for Dublin and we shouldn't be experiencing any more issues. We are lucky to have an engineer on board who will be double checking everything so try to relax and go back to sleep."


	5. Chapter 5

Mark Collins sat in his jail cell, seemingly content all by himself without disturbing the police officers who moved throughout the facility. He finally stood up and walked over to the door of the cell. "Excuse me, could I trouble you for the time please?"

The officer who was escorting a prisoner to the court tv room for his hearing looked over, "It's 9:10 pm."

Collins smiled wickedly, "Excellent," he said to himself. Collins walked back over to the bed counting as he sat down on the bed. He got to 35 and then looked up at the door that led into the hallway of the cells. He then heard the lock click and the handle turned and as the door opened Katharine Cooper charged into the hallway followed by two agents and the on duty sergeant of the precinct.

"Collins you miserable piece of filth," she raged at him.

"Why deputy director Cooper, whatever could I have done to cause you to greet me in such an uncivilized manner?" Collins grinned at her.

"Can it," she stormed, "I'm going to give you one chance, come clean and tell us everything we need to know about the flight Scorpion is on or I'm going to transfer your miserable hide to a prison that will make Abu Ghraib seem like a Hilton country club."

Collins smiled, "Oh dear, has something happened to Aer Lingus EI 144? How distressing. What makes you think I know anything about it?"

Her scowl got darker, the level of hate she now had for this man. "Look Collins, I might not be able to prove it YET, but I can promise you this. I can use what I do know to take you as a terrorist and transfer you to someplace much more secure. You won't be happy there at all."

Collins laughed, "Oh yes, deputy director, please do send me down to GuantanamoBay."

Katharine smiled, "You'd like that wouldn't you? Already made arrangement to escape from there? Maybe disappear into Cuba before escaping to another non extradition country? Have you ever heard of Freezer?"

Collins eyes flashed a momentary puzzlement before he corrected for it and resumed his arrogant expression. "Of course I have, there isn't much about this world I don't know."

Katharine laughed, "I might not be a Harvard trained behaviorist, but even I spotted that look. Freezer is a special prison, its location is beyond secret but trust me, you are not going to like it. And I promise you this, if things go south for that flight you will spend an unbelievable amount of time there. If I have to, I will make sure that medical science finds a way to keep you alive just to maximize your punishment. You'll spend every day strapped down watching every single video we can find for every person on that flight, every single picture."

"I'll have you hyped up on stimulants so you can't sleep through the footage, you'll be fed through a tube down your nose; you won't taste food again. You won't see a mirror again; we'll find out if your eidetic memory can forget what you look like and how long that takes." She said with a sneer on her lips.

Collins roared as he charged off the bed towards the cell door. "You can't do that," he screamed as he slammed into the door grabbing the bars and trying to rattle it. "You think you are untouchable deputy? There is no one on this planet I can't reach.

Katharine smiled, "So then, do we play let's make a deal then? You give me all the information we need and you just go to regular prison for the rest of your life."

Collins stared at her and then smiled.

* * *

Walter quickly took his seat as Cabe stepped next to Allie and took her hand as Walter pulled up his backpack and got his laptop out. "Walter? What's going on?" Sylvester asked quietly.

Walter gestured and Sylvester, Florence and his parents moved over around his seat. Allie twisted around so she could hear and Toby sat holding a sleeping Sasha over his shoulder listening as well. "The short of it is the plane has been targeted and is being held for ransom. There is a device that will bring the plane down if we violate any one of certain conditions, speed, route or altitude."

"Holy Speed," Toby said out loud. Everyone turned to look at him. His face took on an incredulous expression, "Seriously? Keanu Reeves, Dennis Hopper, one is a cop, the other a former cop who takes a bus hostage?" The looks on their faces told him they had no idea, "Am I the only one here that's seen the movie Speed? Come on Sly, we talk about this movie before." Sylvester just shook his head.

Allie raised her hand, "It was a pretty good movie."

Toby looked at her, "Thank you," he told her.

Walter cleared his throat, "Anyway, they somehow detonated a small charge that took out the autopilot, that's what caused the plane to dive earlier. I'm checking now to make sure there are no cameras or listening devices that whoever is doing this can figure out that Happy and I are going down into the cargo area and first see if we can get the autopilot back online and then to see if we can locate the device that could take out the plane. Sly, how much of the data file have you gone through so far?"

Sylvester thought for a moment, "About 30% so far why?"

"It's a long shot but we can't rule out that Mark is behind this. I've gotten through 53% so far, so jump ahead to that point and see if there is any references to this attack, okay?" Walter asked.

Sylvester nodded his head.

"Cabe, when I get done here I'm going to tap into the plane's security cameras, I'd like you to keep a general eye on the passengers. If by some chance there is a conspirator on board they won't see you as law enforcement. The airline has shut down access to the internet with the wifi but the plane can still use it for communication with the airline. Okay, I am not seeing anything on the network that would suggest a camera, microphone that isn't part of the plane equipment and no sniffer program that would be tapping into them." Walter told them as he finished his search and then handed his laptop to Cabe after setting it up to see the camera feeds.

"Florence, would you mind talking with one of the staff and see what chemicals or products they might have on board that we can use. I'm thinking one thing we might be able to do is immerse the device in a compound that could help limit the explosive force. Toby, check and see if there is a cargo manifest. Sometimes these flights carry some and there might be something we can use to help attack this problem. Allie if you wouldn't mind watching over Sasha."

Allie nodded her head and moved back to Happy's seat as Toby laid Sasha in his seat, as Walter continued, "Mom if you would keep an eye on Ralph for me. Dad, I'd like for you to just keep a general eye on the passengers, walk the deck a little like you are stretching your legs, if anyone looks or acts suspiciously I want you to notify Cabe and then Toby, Cabe can watch them while Toby can double check and if he's done going through the manifest he can take over for you." Walter said.

Louise kissed Sean and then stepped over and sat next to Ralph as he slept and Sean began walking down the starboard side of the plane as Walter, Toby and Florence walked up to the Flight deck where Happy and Brian were standing. "Brian, these are two of the other members of Scorpion, Toby and Florence if you could assist them after Happy and I go down into the cargo area please."

Walter knocked on the flight deck door and after a moment Paige opened the door and Walter smiled at her as he remembered the last time she opened a door for him. "Happy and I are going down into the cargo bay now, I asked Mom to keep an eye on Ralph for us."

Paige smiled and kissed him, "Please be careful Walter, no greater good scenarios tonight please." Walter nodded his head, took her hand for a moment and then kissed her back.

Walter followed Happy into the main galley, he watched as Happy unlocked a cabinet door and opened it and it revealed stairs down into the food prep area. "Oh, Happy, I asked Allie to stay with Sasha while were all working on this problem." Walter told her.

Happy smiled, "Thanks Walt, I tell you, that little girl, she means the world to me. And I promise you, when we find out who did this, if the authorities don't get them, I'm going to need time off while I go looking for them. They aren't going to like me very much."

Walter nodded, "Don't worry Happy, if the authorities can't, Scorpion will go after them and I promise you, we will catch them. They will answer for this one way or another."

Happy saw how dark Walter's face was, he very seldom took things personally but this was different, this threatened his entire family on a whole new level. His brilliant mind was running all kinds of scenarios on what he would do to them. Happy stopped and put her hand on Walter's chest. "O'Brien, I get what I am seeing in your face right now, trust me. But this isn't the time Walter, you and I; we have got to put it to the side for now. There will be plenty of time to envision what we're going to do to those responsible for this. Okay Walter?"

* * *

Collins sat back down on his bed, "Do you really think I am going to fold that easy? You aren't ready for this level of the game deputy director."

Katharine's face went cold, "You know what I am ready for Collins?" She gestured to the two agents and the sergeant opened the cell door and they both walked in and put Collins hard onto the floor then handcuffed his hands and put shackles on his ankles. They yanked him back up hard and Collins's shoulders burned with the pain of being pulled up by his arms behind his back. They smacked him hard on the back knocking him forward and when he got within ten feet of Katharine his cuffs discharged current down to the shackles on his ankles and Collins fell to the floor convulsing.

"Oh dear, I forgot. With those on you can't get any closer than ten feet of me or more than twenty five feet. And trust me, unlike Cabe; I have no compunctions about letting you suffer." Katharine told him as she looked at him and then waited for another thirty seconds before she stepped back away from the cell to the door leading out of the passageway.

The two agents picked him back up again, Collins was gasping for breath, "Well done deputy director, I didn't think you had that in you." She smiled as she opened the door and walked out of the area. Collins hurried after her while mentally he continued to calculate the distance between them, the two agents kept pushing him forward and he'd have to stop abruptly to keep from getting too close.

* * *

Walter looked at Happy, he knew she was right but it took a moment before he finally nodded and relaxed a bit, "You're right Happy; sorry." Walter told her. Happy saw his color change and nodded her head. Before she turned and walked out of the food prep area through the door that opened into the cargo bay.

Finding the damage that took out the autopilot was simple enough to find, there was plenty of scorch marks all around the area but other than the power line that fed the autopilot computer there was no real damage. "What do you think Happy?" Walter asked her.

"Judging by the scorch marks and with no physical damage the device must have been placed on the power line itself." Happy told him as she checked to see if she could find enough slack to bring the two ends of the power line back together.

Walter nodded, "Odds are, whoever did this, had to be guy that was inside here when they removed the old cargo containers and loaded the new cargo containers. Anyone else would have seen it and reported it before the flight could have even boarded."

Happy looked at Walter, "So the question is, was this person impersonating an airport employee or was the person an actual employee?"

Walter nodded as he continued to look around the space.

Happy found the line had several coils in the cable run along the wall and pulled out her pocket tool and opened it to reveal heavy cutting blades. She pulled the coils out and snipped the zip ties that kept the cable coiled and then pulled it through until she had enough slack to rejoin the ends. She walked back and continued to follow the cable back to a breaker box and opened it. Thankfully the box was labeled and she reached out to take hold of the breaker marked as the one for the autopilot. Just before she pulled it Walter grabbed her hand, stopping her. "Walt?" She questioned.

Walter pointed at the labeling, and she looked closer and then saw that the hand writing on it was made using a different size pen tip and the ink was much darker and clearly was a different lettering style then the others except for another label which was marked in the same ways but it read 'Fuel pump'. Happy stared at it for several minutes imagining what might have happened if Walter hadn't stopped her.

* * *

Katharine got into the back of her SUV while the two agents put Collins in a cage in the very back. He gritted his teeth expecting the shock to hit him, the agents laughed, "As long as you are right here, you'll be okay Collins." Katharine told him, "Get more than five feet from the vehicle or get within one foot of me in it and you'll get shocked again."

One agent got behind the wheel while the other one closed the back of the SUV and then got in next to Katharine. The SUV started and they took off down the street. Katharine looked back at Collins, "Have you decided if you want to cooperate yet?"

Collins laughed, "Just because of one little shock? I'm afraid it's going to take more than that to convince me deputy director."

Katharine smiled, "Don't worry, I've got a lot more. Who knows, you might get to enjoy all of it and Scorpion might save the plane without you and then, well, you'll have suffered and you will be out the money."


	6. Chapter 6

Toby sat down in Allie's seat as he started pouring over the manifest and Brian was showing Florence their supplies, Florence's face clearly showed she wasn't encouraged by what was available to them. "Sorry Ms Tipton, the TSA is very strict on what we can carry." Brian told her.

Florence nodded, "I understand Brian, by the way, it's Dr actually, but you can call me Florence." She continued to rummage through the different cleaning products checking ingredients just in case.

"This might not be a good time, but if you don't mind me saying, your very pretty Florence and obviously very intelligent, would you be interested in going out with me sometime when we're all back in LA?" Brian nervously told her.

Florence stopped reading and blinked several times looking at Brian, "Um, yea, not a good time and also, I have a boyfriend." She told him before returning to the labels on the containers.

Brian nodded, "I'm not surprised. If there is anything else I can do to help let me know, I'll be taking over for Karen until we land or the Doc says she can resume her duties." Florence just nodded her head in response.

* * *

Paige sat in the jump seat that was on the Flight deck as she watched the night sky and occasionally talking with the pilots. "So Cabe mentioned you were Walter's bride, so that must mean you recently got married?" John asked her.

Paige smiled, "Yes, actually got married this past Tuesday."

"Congratulations!" John and Charlene both told her.

"How long were you engaged? How did he propose?" Charlene asked her.

Smiling Paige stretched out her hand and Charlene looked at the engagement ring and the decent sized diamond in it. "Actually we had only been engaged for three days. But we had been dating for almost a year, been working closely together for four years." Paige explained.

"That's a nice ring, Walter has good taste. How did he propose?" Charlene asked again as she complimented Walter.

Paige smiled, "Well actually he proposed with a band aid. This is actually a family heirloom his mother passed down to me when she found out. It's been in his family for six generations, well seven now."

Charlene looked at her with shock on her face, "A band aid? And you agreed to marry him with that?"

Paige smiled at the memory but she became protective of that event. "You don't understand, Walter had been in a coma for almost two weeks, we had no clue if he would regain consciousness or what condition he would be in when he did. When he woke up, it was the only thing he could get when he asked my son for my hand in marriage. His parents arrived from Ireland a few hours later and when she found out, that was when she offered the ring to me. But even still, I would have agreed to marry him if all he had was a discarded safety ring off a drink bottle."

Charlene had a few tears running down her cheeks, John had turned his head a slight bit to the left so there was no chance they could see the tears in his eyes at her story. "That's just beautiful Paige, I'm sorry for thinking ill about it." Charlene apologized.

* * *

Sean had stopped and was talking to a few fellow countrymen as he was making his second pass around the cabin he had seen one of them had a bag with the Ireland Rugby Union Team emblem on it. He'd realized he had been there a little too long and excused himself to continue his stretch-walk. Adam O'Leary was about Sean's age and he decided to walk with Sean a bit. They'd talked about a lot of things, unlike Sean; Adam had been married four times, currently looking for his next wife. Sean laughed at that.

Sylvester keenly missed Florence's presence next to him and despite the gravity of the situation he kept looking up towards the front of the plane to see if she was coming back yet. His eyes stopped as he read part of the data file and then grew large. Sweat broke out on his forehead. Cabe was watching the camera feeds and he had paused for a moment when Sean had stopped but from the body language and the handshakes he realized there was nothing there and continued scanning the plane. He suddenly heard "Cabe," repeated over and over again and he turned with an annoyed look on his face back to Sylvester.

He saw Louise standing next to Sylvester asking him what was wrong and he saw sweat beads on his forehead. He put the laptop down and stood up and hit Toby in the arm as he moved back to see what was going on. "Sylvester, son, what's wrong," Louise asked him again.

"Sly? What's going on son?" Cabe asked as well. Toby put one knee in the seat in front of Sylvester facing backwards.

Sylvester looked up at all of them; he was definitely scared as he turned the laptop around so they could read the text he'd highlighted. The blood drained out of Cabe's face as he dug into his pocket for his sat phone. He hit speed dial and pressed talk and listened as it rang, on the third ring he heard the phone click, "Homeland, Agent Reed speaking."

"This is Agent Cabe Gallo, badge number 2835. I need to speak with Deputy Director Cooper now." Cabe said hastily.

"Sorry Agent Gallo, director Cooper went to see a Mark Collins upon being advised of the problem aboard your plane." Agent Reed advised him.

"Damn it," Cabe swore as he hung up. He looked at Sylvester and Toby and then punched in a phone number and hit dial.

"Agent Rusty Mitchell, do you know what time it is?" Rusty answered.

"No clue Rusty, we got a problem." Cabe told him. Toby and Sylvester looked at each other and then back to Cabe.

"Cabe," Rusty questioned, "What's going on man?"

"Rusty there's a situation here that we can talk about later. I need you to locate Katharine Cooper, she's in danger. Last known location was going to interview a scumbag named Mark Collins." Cabe told him.

Rusty had bolted upright from his bed and threw back his covers. "Alright Cabe, I'll put in a call to Simone and we'll get right on it, Nick is back in DC for some nonsense. I'll call as soon as I have an update." Rusty told him before hanging up.

Cabe looked at his phone, "Well, that's the best I can do from here. I think we've had a bad effect on her guys, she's getting a little too daring since she started working with us." Toby and Sylvester continued to stare at him. "Get back to it son," Cabe told Sylvester, "there might be something else in that mess we need to know." Sylvester looked at Toby and then nodded at Cabe as he continued to scroll through the data.

"Cabe, you know this isn't your fault right?" Toby asked him.

Cabe looked at Toby, "How can you say that? If it wasn't for us she'd never have been targeted because she would have just been behind her desk like she use to be."

Toby shook his head, "Cabe, people need to grow. Sure this situation is bad, but think back to what a mess she was on that first mission. Remember what Paige had told us about her?"

"I still don't like it," Cabe finally said.

* * *

"Simone, it's Rusty, we got a situation. I need you to jump the network, get a 20 on director Cooper, Cabe said she is in danger. I'll be at your place in 15 minutes to pick you up." Rusty told Simone before hanging up his phone and then tied his boots before running out of his house.

* * *

"Good eyes O'Brien," Happy told him as she traced the power line inside the breaker box. "Clearly someone intended to cause whoever attempted to fix the autopilot to kill the fuel pumps and most likely blow up the plane."

Walter stood there looking out, his thoughts millions of miles from where they were. His eyes opened wide and he turned to Happy, "Collins, he's got to be behind this, you don't endanger your payoff unless you don't care about the payoff, like he did with Toby and the acid."

"Walter!" They heard Cabe scream out.

"Cabe!" Walter responded as Cabe stepped out of the Food Prep area.

"It's Collins!" They both said at the same time.

"How'd you know?" They both said again.

"Sly found a reference to capturing Cooper in the data file, when I called to warn her I was told she had gone to interview him about the plane." Cabe explained.

"We found that someone had changed the labeling for the breakers so that if someone tried to fix the power line for the autopilot they'd turn off the fuel pumps. Only someone who didn't care about the payoff would do that. Mark is the only one that would make sense about." Walter explained.

Cabe stared at him and Happy for a moment, "So does that mean there is no bomb then?"

They both shook their heads, "No, even if you turned off the pumps, you could turn them back on again and restart the engines before you'd crash for normal cruising altitude." Happy explained.

Walter finished, "But it would be long enough to drop the plane below thirty thousand feet which would detonate the bomb."

Cabe nodded, "Have you found the bomb yet?"

"No," Walter said as he shook his head, "not yet. We wanted to get the autopilot computer back up first. What can we do about Cooper?"

"I reached out to Rusty, he's getting Simone and they'll deal with it." Cabe said, "Anything I can do to help down here?"

"Not really, just keep watching the passengers for now." Walter told him.

Cabe nodded and reached out and squeezed his shoulder before he left.

* * *

"Home base to Flight EI 144, come in over." A male voice came over the computer interface.

John pushed a button on the interface screen, "This is Captain John Edwards Flight EI 144, over."

"Flight EI 144, good news, the president of Aer Lingus is green lighting the ransom demand. He insists you direct team Scorpion to discontinue any and all efforts to locate or neutralize any explosive device, over."

"What the hell?" John, Charlene and Paige all three said.

"Home base, could you repeat your last message for clarification, over." John said completely baffled.

"Flight EI 144, you are to direct team Scorpion to discontinue any and all efforts to locate or neutralize any explosive device, over."

John looked at Charlene and then back at Paige, "This is damn peculiar, the company has a staunch position; the company refuses to give in to any terrorist demands."

"Flight EI 144, do you copy, over"

"Home base, flight EI 144 copies your directive. Flight EI 144 out." John finally signaled.

"Can you get Cabe and Walter back here; I think we need to discuss this." John asked Paige.

Paige nodded and got up and left the Flight deck. She saw the stewardess still icing her head, "Hey, how are you doing?" Paige asked her.

* * *

She nodded, "Better I think, at least I am not nauseas anymore." She smiled weakly as she responded.

Paige smiled back as she walked on back to their seats. She walked up to Cabe and bent over and whispered, "The Captain wants you and Walter back in the Flight deck."

Cabe looked up at her for a moment and nodded, "I'll go get him."

As he left she walked over to Louise and Ralph, she had finally drifted off to sleep her hand resting on Ralph's side, their fingers interlocked. She smiled as she stepped back to the next row. "Hey Sly, Florence, any good news," she asked.

Florence spoke first, "The supplies the airline has are very minimal, I doubt I'll be able to come up with anything to help the situation."

Sylvester shook his head, "After finding out that Cooper is a target for Collins I haven't found out anything else yet."

"Wait, what?" Paige asked incredulously.

Sylvester looked at her and then Florence, "Oh, I guess Cabe forgot to brief you, I found that for some reason Collins wants Cooper. Cabe called Rusty and Rusty and Simone are going to try and track her down to keep her safe."

"I really miss not having our comms," Paige said, "I think moving forward it's going to be a standing order we take comms with us everywhere."

Sylvester swallowed hard. "Sly, I'm not mad at you." Paige laughed and laid her hand gently on his sleeve.

* * *

"Hey Walt, the Captain needs us back up at the cockpit." Cabe called out as he emerged from the Food area.

Happy flipped a breaker and nothing seemed to happen. "Okay, the autopilot computer should boot up now," she said.

Walter looked at Cabe and nodded, "Happy, I don't want you down here alone, let's all go back up just to be safe, we'll come back down and start looking for the explosive device after we find out what the Captain wants."

* * *

Simone jumped in Rusty's car moments after he pulled up. "I've got Cooper's SUV headed north, currently south of La Canada Flintridge and just east of the I5 interchange." She told Rusty as she sat a tablet on the console between the front seats. "So what's going on?" She asked.

"Not 100% sure, Cabe said they are in a situation that we could discuss later, but wanted us to find and protect Katharine. If Cabe is asking, it's serious." Rusty told her.

Simone nodded, "You remember the last time the four of us were together before Cabe mustard out?"

Rusty smiled, "Of course, as I recall Nick lost that bet with Cabe and had to wear your dress uniform."

Simone laughed, "Man I wish that nut ball was here. What is going on in DC?"

Rusty sighed, "Some congressman is trying to make a name for himself, so he's trying to drag Nick through the mud for operation Eaglet."

"Say what?" Simone scowled, "But that was sanctioned by the president."

"I know, but just like that mission, Nick doesn't have a choice, he has to appear and answer questions to the armed services committee." Rusty responded.

"But he can't answer them, that's high treason. He can't even tell them where the orders came from." Simone was getting more pissed.

"I know, as soon as I found out what it was about I booked a flight to DC tomorrow. If they try to scapegoat him I'll step in and take the fall. Nick isn't going to swing for that." Rusty told her.

"How's that any better? It's that worthless Bush's fault." Simone was hot now.

Rusty pulled the SUV over, "Simmy," Rusty called her by their nickname for her whenever it was something emotional. "Bush is gone, he can't tell them the truth. As the commander of the mission the buck stops here. Neither of you will ever bare the brunt of our orders. You understand me girl?"

Simone slammed her fist into the dash nearly breaking it. "Russell, if you go down for this, I'm going to break this congressman's body in 25 pieces and then I am going to burn him alive and nothing you say will stop me."

Rusty patted her leg as he took off down the road.


	7. Chapter 7

As Cabe, Walter and Happy came out of the galley Paige grabbed Walter and kissed him. Surprised at first Walter froze for a moment, but Paige's lips against his thawed him out quickly. "What was that for," Walter questioned after she broke the kiss.

"Just because I hadn't kissed you recently," she said as she smiled playfully at him.

Walter didn't get it, but he held on to her hand, even after Cabe opened the Flight deck door and Paige followed after him enjoying the simple contact of him holding her hand.

"John, you should be able to engage the autopilot now," Happy advised him.

John looked back over his shoulder at Happy then reached over and reached over and reset the autopilot, he looked at Charlene and then engaged the autopilot. Cautiously they relaxed their hold the yokes as the plane took over control. He breathed a sigh of relief as he turned sideways in his chair. "Thanks guys, I wasn't looking forward to manually keeping this plane flying all night."

"Paige said you wanted to see us?" Cabe asked.

Nodding his head, "Right, why Paige was in here we got a directive from home base. The president has decided to arrange payment for the ransom, the directive is for team Scorpion to stand down and do not do anything to locate or try to disable the device."

Cabe looked at Walter and Walter looked at Paige, she simply nodded confirming the message. His brow furrowed, "That makes no sense. Even if they got the money, the last thing they would want is for the device to be discovered and possibly lead authorities to them." Walter said.

"Walter, I'm a simple man, I have no idea about what is going on or why. Until I'm dead or we land, I'm also the Captain of this craft. I'm responsible for every soul on this flight. I am not directing you to stand down. I may not know what is going on, but I know Scorpion's reputation. And I'd rather trust you to save us than to trust someone who would endanger all these people just for some money." John said as he reached out his hand.

Paige's eyes brimmed with tears in gratitude for the Captain's faith and belief in the man she loves as Walter reached out and took his hand and shook it. "Thank you Captain, just know that even if my entire family wasn't aboard, I would do everything in my power to resolve this." Walter told him before they broke their handshake.

"I'm going to need to confer with two of my other team members to see what we have to work with and then come up with a plan to locate and neutralize this device." Walter told him. John nodded as they turned and left the Flight deck.

"We'll keep you up to date on our progress." Paige promised looking back over her shoulder as Walter, still holding her hand, led her back into the passenger cabin.

* * *

As they walked past the coat closet Happy saw Sasha sleeping next to Allie and she quickly moved up and knelt beside her and tucked the blanket covering her around her and smoothed her hair as she kissed her cheek several times. She looked up at Allie, "Thank you," she mouthed to her. Allie smiled at her and nodded her head. Happy moved up to where Toby was sitting and plopped down sideways on his lap, threw her arms around his neck and kissed him.

Paige pulled Walter's hand over and while holding it with both hands pressed it firmly into her lower stomach as she watched Happy's uncharacteristic display of affection with a large open mouth smile. Walter looked down at their hands and then up at Paige and he lend over and kissed her deeply before leading her over to Sylvester and Florence.

"Were you able to find anything that might help us in this situation?" Walter asked Florence.

She shook her head no, "Sorry Walter, TSA regulations really restrict what the airline can carry on board. Depending on exactly what you want, there are a few limited choices, but nothing that could be used to mitigate an explosion."

Walter nodded his head, "Sly, anything else pertinent to what is going on?"

"I'm at 76% through this data but nothing else yet." Sylvester told him, "I'm sorry."

Walter shook his head and smiled, "Nothing to be sorry for Sly, you aren't responsible for what Collins is doing. This is on me, because of my decision all those years ago, I'm just sorry all of you have been caught up in it. But I promise you, I promise you, we'll figure this out and Collins will not win."

"This isn't your fault either son," Cabe said from behind them, "This is all on Collins. You did what a friend needed to do for him, even if you had some other thoughts on the matter. It still came from a place of care and concern. He's the one that has decided to pervert it and not see what was done was right. Sadly his doctors failed him and let him go before he really was ready to reenter the world as a functioning member of society."

Walter started to respond but Paige put a finger to his lips, he looked up at her as she shook her head. Walter bit his tongue but then looked down at his Mom, "How are you and Ralph doing Mom?"

Louise patted the hand he had placed on her arm, "We're fine dear, we're both here relaxing because we know what you and your team are capable of and we trust you implicitly."

Walter's right eyebrow rose, "But, Ralph's asleep."

Louise looked over at Ralph and smiled as she looked back at Walter, "That's because he trusts you. Do you think if he was nervous he would be sleeping?"

Paige smiled at the simplicity of Louise's logic and the love she had for Walter. Walter looked puzzled as he looked at Paige and for a moment he seemed to understand what Paige was thinking, he turned back to his Mother and kissed her cheek before turning to talk with Toby.

"Sorry Walt, there wasn't anything in the manifest that could help with this situation. Well unless you want to get drunk, there is a very nice case of wine down there." Toby joked.

Walter looked up at the ceiling of the plane as he began to try to analyze the situation, his connection to Collins, the misdirection of the breaker box labels. "So, from what we know now is that Collins arranged this problem to lure Cooper out into the open where she'd be vulnerable. But why, what has she done that would warrant Collins going after her? We know because of the breaker box labeling that the money isn't that important to him. Especially when you consider his skills at hacking, he could certainly siphon all of the funds he needs from banks and not be caught. So he needed someone to help him get to us which is what he wants and this other person must have been the one that had a reason to want Cooper."

"Ah Walt, Collins only wants to kill me. Why go after the rest of you, not to mention all the other people on this plane," Toby questioned.

"Yes, he wants to kill you, but he wants revenge against me. Having this plane go down and knowing there isn't anything I can do to stop it which would result in the death of my entire family would be torture in the extreme for me." Walter pointed out.

"Uh, don't forget, he threatened me as well before Cabe arrested him yesterday." Sylvester pointed out.

Walter nodded his head as he looked at Sylvester. "So the question now is, is there an explosive device or is there a series of misdirection events like the breaker box that could result in the plane going down? After all, an explosion would abruptly end his revenge."

Happy shook her head, "No, there has to be one, what's the biggest torment a brief plummet to our deaths or another four hour flight that may or may not end in an explosion?"

* * *

Rusty and Simone had just passed La Canada Flintridge and entered Angeles National Forest as they flew along state road two. "Hey Rusty, it looks like they stopped about 10 miles north of here. Wait, that's an overlook for Ladybug Canyon. Oh Lord, you don't suppose?"

Rusty turned on the lights and sirens and floored the SUV. The SUV quickly accelerated to over 150 mph.

Katharine sat in the back of the SUV with a gun pointed at her. "I can't believe you guys would help a scumbag like Collins." She snapped.

"He's a scumbag with connections to deep, powerful pockets. We'll get a nice payday out of this and promotions to boot. Thank you for that." The agent in the back told her. "Now be a good girl and get out of the car, nice and easy."

Katharine sighed and reached up and pulled the door lever and pushed it open, turned and exited the SUV, the driver was already waiting with his gun out so there wasn't much chance to run and what with her heels on, short as they were, she surely couldn't have ran away.

The driver hit a button and unlocked the back hatch and the other agent got out and opened it, then unlocked the cage Collins sat in. "Why thank you." Collins told him as he exited the vehicle. He made his way arrogantly around the vehicle where Katharine stood. "Well, well, well, deputy director Cooper, it looks like things have turned for us. Wouldn't you say?"

Katharine rolled her eyes. Collins held his arms out and the agent unlocked the cuffs and then unlocked the shackles. Collins smiled evilly looked at Katharine as he took the chains from the agent and stepped up to her. "Pardon me," he told her as he stooped down and locked the shackles to her ankles and then stood and put the cuffs on her wrists. His grin was still evil as he reached into her jacket pocket and pulled the fob device out of it and dropped it into his own pocket. "I hope you don't get too far from me." He told her as he began walking away.

"What do you want Collins?" She asked him.

Collins stopped and started laughing as he turned, "What makes you think you have anything that I want? You have your own enemies," he told her as he started walking toward her, "mine however are cruising at about 625 mph at about 33,000 feet over the Atlantic right now. In just a few short hours, they'll run out of fuel and when the plane hits 29,500 feet altitude it will go *BOOM*" He thrust his hands into her face and then yanked them back as if an explosion blew them apart.

"That annoying shrink and that turncoat O'Brien will spend the next few hours in living hell, knowing that their loved ones are about to die and there isn't anything any of them can do to prevent it. I just wish I could see their faces for a few minutes before it happens. I'd actually love to pause time just before the big ka-boom and talk to Walter for a moment and ask him if his betrayal was worth the cost." Collins inhaled deeply.

"Oh what a joy that would be, but I'll just have to enjoy it when the news reports the loss of the plane and all hands on board. I almost regret killing all of them but when you want someone to suffer you have to go the extra mile. You know what I mean?" Collins asked her.

"Not really, I'm not a homicidal lunatic unlike some people I know." Katharine told him.

Collins laughed, "Was that suppose to shock me or perhaps shame me into calling it all off? Not a chance deputy director Cooper. Or should I say former deputy director Cooper? You won't live as long as Cabe will after all."

Katharine smiled, "What makes you say that?"

Collins looked at her, his eyes probing her facial muscles, "Something isn't right," he exclaimed, he turned and took off running.

The driver drew his gun, looking around and a red pin light struck his forehead and a split second later a bullet tore through his head and he fell to the ground. The other agent jumped behind Katharine and grabbed her around the shoulders with his gun pointed to the south looking around.

Collins crossed some boundary and as he did the cuffs activated and Katharine fell to the ground as electricity coursed through them both, the convulsions forced the agent to let go of her. As he did he was struck 3 times as Rusty moved up out of the shadows. "Damn it, Simone," he exclaimed as Simone moved up out of the same shadows. "Where's Collins? He must have the fob on him and Katharine is being shocked." Just then they heard a loud engine start and then tires squealed.

Rusty looked at Simone and they both looked at Katharine, "She doesn't have long if we can't think of something." Simone said.

Rusty looked up in the sky, "Nicky, if this doesn't work, I'm sorry." He said quietly.

Rusty drew a deep breath, "Rusty NO!" Simone screamed and leapt but Rusty grabbed the chain between the shackles and the chain between the cuffs and Rusty screamed as the energy was diverted and coursed through him instead of Katharine.

* * *

Walter, Happy and Cabe made their way around the cargo bay. Paige stood by the door to the food area and watched as they checked everything that could be opened carefully searching for the device. Paige had begun to wish she had sent Ralph to visit with Drew, but Walter had begged her to let him come. He hadn't gotten to go with them for the first Pattern day for Megan. It had been important to Walter to start their life as a family more than just as a newlywed couple.

They found nothing inside the plane. All that was left to check down here was the luggage bins. First they checked the outside of each one making sure there was nothing attached to the bottom side of them. They all three stepped up to the first one and Cabe inserted the key the Captain gave them and unlocked it. Happy carefully raised lid a bit and then shone light from her flashlight inside. Not seeing anything connected to the lid she opened it the rest of the way. They carefully removed each bag until the container was empty. They breathed a sigh of relief and put the bags back inside and locked it back up.

Each container was empty and each bag had an appropriate tag on it so they were comfortable that the device wasn't there.

"As I suspected," Walter said, "This was a waste of time, we need to be checking the plane systems for the device."

"Walt, this affects all of us, we all agreed to follow majority rule of what to check. No dictatorial rule, remember?" Happy asked.

"That's because I didn't think that many of you would vote against me. Now we've wasted all this time looking for something that couldn't have been here in the first place. Instead of logically looking in places the device could be." Walter slammed his hand against the container.

"Paige," Happy exclaimed, "talk to your husband before I put him on the floor."


	8. Chapter 8

Paige walked up to Walter and wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him from behind with her head pressed tight to his shoulder, her mouth just inches from his ear. His eyes were closed as he fought the fear for his family and the anger of the wasted time. Paige whispered, "Walter, I know the situation is dire, I know we don't have much time but now isn't the time to worry about what we should have done. We've still got a chance to locate the device and save ourselves, almost two whole hours. Now if you were going to put the device on this plane, where would you put it?" Paige asked.

Walt's head came up and Paige took a small step back as Walter turned towards her. He looked into her eyes, his eyes wide in thought. Paige looked back into his eyes a bit of puzzlement on her face, "Walter? W-what is it?" Walter grimaced and blinked and then he kissed her.

"Paige, you're brilliant, I'd placed it where I could tap the plane's systems the easiest but where the explosion would ensure that there was no way for anyone to save the plane. We need to get into the compartment under the Flight deck." Walter told her. Walter took her hand and nearly dragged her back to the door that entered the Food prep area. He pointed at the door that was just past it. 'Flight Computers' the sign on the door read.

"I'd put it in there," Walter said as he looked at her, "It would take out the computers that help to fly the plane, it would blast a hole in the fuselage and through the ceiling which would either kill the pilots or at least destroy the instrument panels so even if you could by pass the computers you still couldn't fly the plane." Walter said very excitedly. "You really are a genius Paige." He told her as he kissed her.

* * *

Katharine was slowly recovering from the shock she was subjected to, her eyes took a moment to focus but she finally saw Rusty kneeling there, obviously being shocked, his hands holding the chains connecting the shackles and cuffs. Simone stood there frozen as she stared at her commander, her mentor, her friend, paralyzed in indecision. "Simone," Katharine called out but she didn't respond, "SIMONE," Katharine screamed.

Simone glanced at her, "In the SUV glove compartment is a spare fob, hurry." Katharine told her.

The passenger door was locked, Simone swore as she scrambled around the front of the SUV and dodged around the driver's door and jumped headfirst into the front seat, her momentum caused her to slide across the seat and she banged her head into the passenger door, but quickly opened the glove compartment and pulled out the spare fob, pointing it out the window she hit the button and Rusty fell on top of Katharine. She hit the second button remotely releasing the locks on the cuffs before she slid back out of the SUV.

Katharine managed to push Rusty over onto his back and off of herself and she got on her knees and checked for a pulse as Simone made it back around the vehicle. "There's no pulse." Katharine told her.

"No, no, no, no, no!" Simone screamed and dropped to her knees and felt for the bottom of Rusty's sternum, feeling the little bone, she laid two fingers over it and placed her fist on top of his sternum above her fingers and then raised her fist and brought it down. She felt for a pulse but not feeling one she breathed into his mouth while pinching his nose shut two times and then began chest compressions.

Katharine tapped her ear piece, "Call 9-1-1" She heard her phone click and then dial after one ring an automated message came on and Katharine interrupted the message saying, "Priority, Homeland, seven-niner-niner-niner-lima-tango."

There was a momentary delay as the computer reacted to the password and then "Deputy director Cooper, computer has your location at the overlook of Ladybug Canyon state road two, we have a military medivac chopter departing for your location now, eta fifteen minutes." The voice on the other side said. Is there anything else you need?"

"I need state road two shut down for a man hunt. I want search helicopters; target is Mark Collins, terrorist." Katharine said.

Rusty groaned and Simone collapsed on him and began crying in gratitude. Rusty's hand slowly rose up and cupped the back of her head as he whispered weakly, "Its okay soldier, you did good, thank you."

Katharine smiled and placed a hand on Simone's back, "Thank you both, I owe you."

* * *

Happy stood back in the galley with Paige as Walter and Cabe spoke with John and Charlene at the door to the Flight deck. "We didn't find the device in the luggage bins below John. I'd like your permission to look in the flight computer room." Walter told him.

John looked at Charlene, "You can't let them do that, that's the most sensitive place on the plane. Regulations specifically forbid that. It's bad enough you are going against the company's order and letting them continue, but that will cost you your job and your wings," Charlene told him.

Toby moved up from where he was watching by the restroom, his eyes narrowed, "Why are you really against this?" He asked Charlene. "Your life is in as much danger as the rest of ours if this bomb goes off." Charlene looked at Toby, "You don't plan to be here when it goes off do you? Ah, right there, you got some way off this plane don't you? But we're too high and too fast, you must have a high altitude jumpsuit and parachute stashed someplace. Ah ha, I'm right aren't I?"

John turned to look at Charlene as she took a step back and her hand came up pushing the hem of her jacket up and pulling a gun down out of a shoulder holster. She shoved the gun into John's face and then pointed it at Toby as John stepped back, "Fine, you guys want to try and save this plane? Go ahead, you'll fail, you'll still die, but you are going to let me go free now and I'll let John stay functioning so you have a pilot. Try and stop me, he'll die first and then I will put a bullet through a couple of windows." Charlene told them.

John tried to make a grab for the gun but she anticipated it and smacked him in the nose with the butt, breaking it. John fell to the floor holding his nose. "Now, try something like that again." Charlene dared them.

Walter threw his hands up as he made sure Paige was blocked by his body, "We won't stop you, if you want to go, then go, just give us the chance to try and save ourselves. You have my word, we won't try to stop you and I only state facts."

Charlene sneered at him and pointed the gun at John, and wagged the gun towards the galley. Walter and Cabe cautiously stepped forward and helped John to stand and move back towards the galley. She pointed the gun at Toby who flinched, "You too, get over there."

Toby moved over cowering as he moved. Charlene slowly made her way out turning as she walked keeping them in sight, "No tricks, you try to interfere and you won't get the chance to save yourselves, agreed?" Charlene reiterated.

Walter scowled at Charlene as he walked around his friends, keeping himself between her and his family. "I already told you, we'd let you go and I only state facts." Walter told her in contempt.

Charlene took her jacket off, then the shoulder holster and threw the holster to the ground and covered her hand holding the gun with her jacket, "I'll wish you luck, because you are going to need it." She said with a smile and then turned and moved on aft of the plane.

Cabe started to go after her and Walter grabbed his arm, "I gave my word she could go, let her go, we've got to save this flight."

John looked up from where he was kneeling on the floor, "You're going to need to hurry, we only got about two and a half hours of fuel left. And I am going to have to steer the plane into a holding pattern soon to keep us from straying too far off course."

"Toby, help John, Happy get us into that room." Walter told her.

Paige stepped up to Walter and hugged him tightly, whispering, "Walter, you promised me no greater good when this started."

Walter closed his eyes as he hugged her back, "I'm sorry Paige, I couldn't let her threaten you guys with a gun without doing something. It's not in my nature to not do something to protect you."

Charlene had picked up her pace, they hadn't come after her yet, but she was almost positive they would. As she passed from Business class to Economy class sections she flinched as Sean leapt from behind the center bulkhead striking her in the shoulders and Adam struck her knees. Charlene let out a scream of pain as they all crashed to the floor her gun went skittering down the walkway.

Walter looked down the aisle way and saw his dad scrambling on top of Charlene and another man covering her legs. "Cabe," Walter exclaimed as he broke from Paige and ran down the aisle way. Cabe pulled out his badge as they got to the scene one of the passengers had grabbed the gun and was pointing it at Sean and Adam. "Homeland Security, give me that gun now."

"These two are terrorists, they attacked the pilot." The man with the gun said, refusing to surrender it.

"Actually son, she is working with diverse others in an attempt to bring this plane down. Now I won't ask again, give me the gun." Cabe told him. The man looked at Walter and Walter just nodded his head.

The man slowly held the gun out and Cabe took it.

"You promised to let me go!" Charlene screamed.

Walter knelt down, "I did and I kept that promise, but it looks like these two men decided to do something else."

Brian was standing back looking through the starboard side of the separation in shock.

Cabe saw him there, "Brian, you got any zip ties?" He slowly nodded his head, "Well, don't just stand there, go get them and get Toby, looks like her knee is out of joint." Cabe told him.

Walter stood up and turned to his dad, "Dad, what were you doing?"

"I saw her holding a gun on you and your friends. I pointed it out to Adam as we were walking up this side of the plane and we figured we could stop her as she came this way. She was more interested in what you were doing then who was down this way." Sean explained.

Walter hugged his father, "Please don't do that again Dad."

Paige put her arms around them both, "I second that Dad."

Sean's eyes teared as he hugged his children back, "Thank you again Walter, for bringing this sweet daughter into our family." He whispered.

Toby moved past them and knelt down by Charlene, "Yep, that's a dislocated knee," Toby confirmed.

Cabe got the zip ties from Brian and bent down and secured her hands behind her back. "You're under arrest, you have the right to remain silent, you have the right to an attorney, if you can't afford one, one will be provided for you as soon as one is available."

Toby was working with her knee and leg, gently massaging and moving them slowly and in a tiny rotation until the bones slipped back in place. "Brian, you got any medical supplies, maybe an ace bandage or the like?"

"I'll go check," Brian told him.

Adam looked at Sean, "Is this the lad you were telling me about Sean, the genius who's been fighting to save people?"

Sean turned towards Adam sliding his arm around Walter's shoulders. "Walter, Paige, this is Adam O'Leary from County Clare. Adam, this is my boy Walter," he slipped his other arm around Paige, "And this is his bride, my daughter Paige."

"Walter, it's a pleasure to meet you," Adam said as he reached out his hand.

Walter shook his hand, "It's nice to meet you too Adam."

Adam looked at Paige, "And Paige is it? You certainly picked yourself a fine looking lady to be your wife Walter. It's a pleasure to meet you too."

Paige extended her hand, "Thank you. It's good to meet you too, thank you for helping Dad to stop her."

Adam laughed, "Most welcome, though to be honest I am grateful for the opportunity to help. The Dr has had me on the sideline for several years now, bad ticker." He said tapping his chest, "I have felt useless for a long time so just don't tell the missus what happened." He winked at them.

Paige and Sean laughed but Walter didn't understand the humor so he tried to emulate their laugh but failed.

Walter quickly looked at Cabe, "Have you got this? I've got to go search for that device so I know what we're up against."

Cabe smiled, "I think I can handle this."

Paige kissed Walter, "Remember, no greater good scenarios." She told him seriously. Walter turned and moved quickly back to the main galley outside of the Flight deck.

Happy was standing there, "I haven't got the right tools to pick that lock and we'll need the key Walter."

Walter punched in the code and entered the Flight deck. John sat in his seat holding the ice pack Toby had given him to his nose. "Dad and another passenger stopped Charlene, have you got the key to get us into the computer room?" He asked John.

John nodded as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a key ring with a few keys and handed it to Walter. Walter stepped out of the Flight deck and looked at Happy and then handed the keys to Happy and they both rushed downstairs. It only took a moment for Happy to find the right key and unlock the door.

"Do you think this could be booby trapped?" Happy asked Walter as she laid her hand on the handle.

Walter seemed to look beyond her, which told Happy he was running numbers and odds. He blinked and looked at Happy and shook his head.

Happy pushed the handle down and opened the door. The cold rush of the air inside made them both shiver as the somewhat warmer air in the cargo bay washed into the room and pushed the colder air out. They both stepped into the room where they saw the device sitting on the floor. There was a strap holding it to the bulkhead and to keep it from bouncing or sliding around which might cause the three wires that connected it into the three different computers.


	9. Chapter 9

Something seemed to click inside of Simone's mind and she jumped up off of Rusty and the ground and raced back around the SUV and got in, "Simone? Simone! What are you doing?" Katharine yelled. Simone slammed the door shut and hit the ignition, starting the SUV. Slamming the gear shift down into drive she took off slowly banking back around the overlook and then floored it speeding off in the direction Mark fled. "SIMONE!" Katharine yelled.

"Sorry Director, you won't get through to her right now. She's on a mission." Rusty said weakly.

Katharine looked down at Rusty, "A mission for what?"

He smiled, "Collins. I hope you don't want him alive. I'm pretty sure he's about to meet an unfortunate accident."

Katharine looked at him incredulously, "But there is no way to know where he went, its pitch black and Lord only knows where he could have gone."

"Before we shot your agents, Simone had tagged him with a tracker, just in case. We'd used the same tech on Major Emery and his boys when we escorted Scorpion to that lab. Thankfully we didn't have to use it then. She'll know where he is within a ten foot radius. He won't escape." Rusty told her with a grin on his face.

Katharine nodded her head thoughtfully. "Speaking about that incident, didn't you have a third member? Nick was it? Where is he at?"

Rusty sighed, "He's facing a congressional inquiry tomorrow in a closed Congressional Armed Services Committee. I just found out what it's about earlier today, I've got to get there tomorrow to stop it."

"Wait, what? Why didn't you let me know what is going on?" Katharine demanded.

Rusty coughed, "I told our supervisor, Michaels, I figured he kept everyone else in the loop."

"Michaels and I will have a conversation he is going to find very uncomfortable. Now what is this inquiry about and how are you going to stop it?" Katharine demanded.

"Back in the Marines, my squad was given a directive, we performed it. Recently Congressman Phillips found out about the incident. But with no record of the order he has decided to use it to try and push an agenda to gain some prestige. As Nick's commander he followed my orders, so I will accept sole responsibility and let the pieces fall where they may. Man, I could use some water." Rusty told her.

Katharine sat thinking for a moment, "Wait, why aren't there any records of the directive? Why doesn't whoever ordered it come forward?"

"You know if I tell you, I'm committing treason right? It's not just about security clearance, are you sure you want to know?" Katharine nodded, "It was one of 'those' missions code named Eaglet." Rusty sighed, "And unfortunately Bush passed away. No one else will step forward out of fear of repercussions. I'm not about to let Nick swing for it. Oh, do me a favor, call Cabe on his sat phone, let him know you're okay, I promised, but I'm a little tired."

Katharine laid her hand on his shoulder, "Sure thing, you rest." She watched as his eyes closed but could still see his chest rise and fall. She reached up and touched her ear piece "Call home base switchboard."

After a few moments, "Homeland Switchboard, how may I direct your call?"

"This is Deputy Director Cooper, Alpha-One-Echo-Twelve. Connect me to Agent Cabe Gallo's sat phone." Katharine ordered.

* * *

"That's good news Katharine, thank you for calling, I'm glad you are okay." Cabe said as he hung up his phone. He looked at his family, "Rusty and Simone got to Katharine in time, and she's safe. Simone is in pursuit of Collins at this time." Sylvester's mouth grew into a huge grin.

"This is pretty sophisticated tech Walt." Happy said as they both looked over the device. "We can't even open the casing because of these wires wrapping around it which will probably trigger the device."

Walter nodded, "I'm convinced that this device is going off whether they pay the ransom or not. I'm not seeing any connection to the network from it. And I don't see any antenna connected to it for it to receive a signal of any kind. How much explosive do you think there is?"

Happy looked at it for a moment then took hold and slid it gently left and then right, then lifted it an inch off the floor, carefully being sure not to put too much stress on it, while keeping it within the small play from the strap holding it in place. "It's fairly light, maybe ten pounds, depending on what components the device is made from. I'd say that leaves about three to four pounds of explosive materials."

Walter nodded, "Let's go back up and confer with the others." They stepped out and Happy locked the door back and put the key in her pocket as they went back up the stairs.

* * *

Toby was holding Sasha and along with Paige they were waiting when Walter and Happy entered the Galley, "See Sasha? There's Mommy, just like I said." Toby pointed. Sasha smiled real big and leaned way out away from Toby with her arms reaching to Happy. Happy grinned in response and took hold of Sasha as Toby let her go and she pulled her in tight for a hug. Paige hugged Walter and Toby stepped in and hugged both of his ladies.

"Do you have any good news?" Paige asked.

Walter rocked his hand back and forth as he entered the code to the Flight deck. John looked back at Walter as he pulled out his phone and showed him the device, "I believe this is the explosive device, I wanted to be sure that it's not part of the normal equipment in the computer room." He told John.

"Never saw anything like that before Walter. I'd have to say that's the device." John confirmed.

Walter nodded, "As you can see these three cables go to these three computers, can you tell me what each computer is for?"

John cleared his throat, "This one is for flight control, and it monitors and updates our course for us. This computer is what monitors our speed and all physical aspects of the plane. And this one is for our altitude and weather related information."

"John, earlier when we went to get the autopilot back online, someone had altered the label in the breaker box, if we hadn't caught it, we could have cut power to the plane's fuel pumps. Is there anyway that these computers could have been switched so that the one that should be for speed is actually for altitude or course?" Walter inquired.

Nodding, "Yes, there's nothing keeping the computers from being swapped around," John said as he reached down under his seat and pulled out a binder, "This will list the computer serial number and what it's for, just to be sure. There are three places the serial is listed, so be sure to check them all, two of them could have been swapped."

Walter took the book, "Thanks, I'm going to confer with my team before we proceed. Before we do anything that can't be taken back, we'll need you to move back into the passenger cabin to be safe."

John shook his head, "No can do. I won't leave the cockpit while we're in motion without a co-pilot, if something goes wrong, if we're not killed outright, you'll need me here to try and do whatever I can."

Walter looked at him for a moment and just nodded.

Walter walked out of the room and Paige took his hand as they walked around to their seats. Everyone gathered around them to hear what was happening. "We found the device," Walter began, "We can't open it so we don't know what is inside of it, and it's wired up to three computers, each one monitoring one of the three factors, speed, altitude and course. Based on dimensions and components, we're only talking about a few, maybe four, at the most, sticks of TNT equivalent blast. If we can figure out how, we could probably mitigate that much destructive force with little to no damage to the plane."

"I'm sorry Walter, with the chemicals available to us, there just isn't anyway to create something that could absorb the explosive force, even one that small." Florence told him.

"You know Dad; we could probably program three tablets to emulate the plane's computers and maybe find a way to switch it over to them. That might give us a chance to dispose of it without worrying about trying to mitigate the explosion." Ralph spoke up.

Everyone looked at him, "Sure, we could record the data for a complete loop of the holding pattern, then program in a few minor variations so it wasn't the exact same for each pass around a loop." Sylvester added.

Walter nodded his head, "Both good ideas, okay, Toby, get three tablets together for them, Ralph, I want you to take my laptop, it might be easier to just hack the plane's computers and copy their systems to the tablets rather than trying to build an emulator on short notice, that'll be your job. Sly, you'll be responsible for recording the loop data and when he has a tablet ready you'll set it up, we'll have to pick a location, speed and altitude for it to begin with and then arrange for John to bring us to that exact spot and speed. You'll then write an algorithm that will modify it on the fly, but we'll need to somehow mirror the exact data for a few minutes while we hook the tablets up and then separate them from the real computers."

"If we hook the tablets up directly to the computers they are emulating, it'll be easy to mirror that data before handing it off to the algorithm." Ralph told him.

Pointing a finger at Ralph, "Another excellent idea," Water told him. Paige smiled at Ralph and placed her hand on his shoulder, Walter continued, "Sly, you brought birdronee right?"

"Uh, yea," Sylvester answered nervously, "I'd planned to get a lot of aerial shots of the farm and countryside. Why?"

"Because we'll attached the device to it and fly it out, it's already going to be crazy dangerous opening the cargo bay door, we don't want to risk anyone trying to drop it out of the open cargo bay door and falling, or throwing it and possibly hitting something and causing a cable from dislodging and then blowing up." Walter answered. "Happy, can it lift that device?"

"If I take the camera off and I rewire it, it shouldn't have any issue carrying it. We'll just have to make sure we launch it right. We don't want it to get sucked up into the engine or get hit by the jet exhaust, either of which could be disastrous. Probably the best option would be as soon as it gets close enough for air pressure to pull it out would be to cut the engine and let it free fall as much as possible." Happy told him.

"Okay, John gave me this binder, it's got the serial number of the computers in it, I'll verify that each computer is in the proper spot, after the labeling issue, I don't trust that one or all of them could have been moved around and we don't want to hook up the wrong tablet to the wrong cable of the device. Sly, is birdronee in your checked bag?" Walter asked.

Sylvester closed his eyes and nodded his head as Florence held his hand. Happy stepped up to him, "Don't worry Sly, we'll build you a new one okay?"

Sylvester opened his eyes as Sasha reached out and kissed his cheek. He smiled a little smile at Sasha, "Thank you." He told her. Sasha giggled and turned back to her Mommy.

Happy stepped over to Allie, "Okay Squirt, I've got some work to do, will you sit with Gromma Allie until Daddy gets back?"

Sasha pouted a little but kissed Happy and then reached out for Allie, "Gromma Allie," Sasha said as Allie took her into her arms.

Walter turned to go back down with Happy when his arm was held back by Paige's hand, he looked back and she gestured with her finger. He stepped back up to her and she reached up and kissed him briefly then winked at him. Walter smiled as she released his arm and Happy pulled him with her hand.

* * *

The military medivac chopter had secured Rusty and dropped off a couple of Marine guards for Katharine's protection. They walked back down the road a little ways where Rusty told her they'd parked their SUV while the chopter lifted off. "We need to follow state road two. An agent is chasing after a terrorist. I don't want her taking him on alone." Katharine explained. One sergeant climbed in behind the wheel and the other got in back with Katharine and they took off down the road.

Simone was getting closer, the tracker was working perfectly, and she'd over take him in the next five minutes. Just as she went to set the tablet down on the seat she saw that the tracker slowed down and turned down a side road. She slowed long enough to look and the side road would take him the back way to state road thirty nine. From there he could go south and hit the I-10 and either go back to LA or go on eastward.

The cut off was coming up and she slowed barely as she slid the SUV around the corner. The wheels screamed as she tried to maintain maximum speed and then floored it as soon as the vehicle stabilized. The wheels screamed again as she took the next corner and as she came out of it she had to slow down drastically, conditions were took risky and collateral damage could be bad.

"Todd, stop," the sergeant in back yelled, "Turn around quickly."

As the SUV with Katharine slowed and made a U-turn, she looked and saw what the sergeant saw, fresh looking tire marks of a large vehicle going around the corner unto a side road. It wasn't long before they found the second turn the vehicle made. "I don't know who we're following ma'am, but they're really taking a big risk down these roads."

"Sometimes chasing a terrorist you got to take some chances." Katharine told him. Katharine grabbed her seat belt and put it on as the road become bumpy and a good bit less sure.

Simone saw the vehicle Collins was in and she accelerated. Collins saw the lights but when the vehicle began gaining on him he knew something was up and so he accelerated as fast as he dared. Unfortunately for him Simone dared more and in just a few minutes she was right behind him, she hit the emergency lights and flipped on the spot light the SUV was equipped with. The bright light blinded Collins long enough for him to misjudge the edge of the road and he sideswiped a tree which caused his backend to spin over and smack a tree on the north side of the road which caused the front end to fling around and crashed head on into another tree.


	10. Chapter 10

Simone slammed on the brakes and slid the SUV sideways stopping just inches from the car Collins was in. She jumped out of the SUV and ran up to the driver's door with her service weapon drawn. From the available light she could see Collins was unconscious, his nose bleeding freely, the airbag had broken it when it deployed. 'Serves you right', she thought as she yanked the door open. Collins hadn't buckled up so Simone grabbed his shoulder and pulled him out of the car and back to the SUV.

After handcuffing his hands and feet propped him up against the side of the SUV and turned and sat down inside the vehicle and slumped over the steering wheel. She'd been running on pure adrenalin for the last thirty minutes.

* * *

Walter closed the last case on the computers. Each one had been swapped to a different place. There was a marker board in the room that denoted each time the different systems had been tested and the initials of the person completing the task. He saw a marker hanging by it and he reached up and yanked it free, then he marked the front of each computer with an A, S or C depending on which aspect it controlled. He opened the door and found Happy had pulled out Birdronee and they both went back upstairs.

Happy pulled her carry on bag out and got her traveling tool kit out of it. Paige walked up to Walter and handed him some scarves. Walter looked puzzled at the scarves, "I figured you might need something lightweight to affix the device to Birdronee. So I got these from a couple of older ladies back in the back of the plane." Paige smiled at Walter as she explained.

Walter looked at Paige for a moment and then smiled, "I actually hadn't thought about that yet, this was a really good idea." Walter kissed Paige tenderly. "I could actually use Cabe and your help downstairs. I want to move the cargo bins back further. Try and give us as clear as a path as possible for getting the device out of the plane.

Cabe stood up, "Good, I'm getting a little cranky sitting here like a bump on a log anyway."

Walter and Paige laughed and Walter looked at his Dad, "Dad, we cold use your help too if you don't mind."

Sean looked surprised but he stood up, "Anything you need son."

Walter turned to lead the way but he looked back over at Ralph, he was completely engrossed in his task. Paige smiled and reached out and caressed his arm, Walter looked at her and smiled and then turned and lead them to the main Galley.

* * *

Simone heard a horn blowing and a vehicle approaching. She looked out of the passenger side windows and saw the red and blue lights of the SUV as it pulled up next to her. She slid out of the seat and looked down at Collins, the blood flow had stopped on its own and she waved back at the other SUV.

The Marine in back with Katharine exited the SUV and moved up to stand by Simone who held her Homeland badge out for him. He lowered his weapon and looked down at Collins. "Mark Collins, terrorist and scumbag." Simone told him.

He nodded his head and reached down and grabbed Collins's arm and pulled him up and over his shoulder and carried him to the back of the SUV, Simone opened the hatch and they shoved Collins back into the cage and locked it. As they closed the hatch they saw Katharine get out of the SUV, "Sergeant, would you mind waiting here until local authorities get here to take care of the crash site and then bring the SUV back to Homeland? I've already notified your command."

She walked up to the other SUV, "Well done Simone, thank you." Katharine told her.

"Thank you Ma'am, just doing my job." Simone replied.

Katharine smiled, "Sergeant, would you mind taking the wheel and taking us back to Homeland? I'm going to finish interrogating Collins and get to bottom of this."

The sergeant nodded and got into the SUV as Katharine and Simone got into the back seat.

* * *

It was a struggle, unhooking the bins, moving them and hooking them back up, but they finally had them all moved around enough out of the way as best they could. Walter stood staring at the hatch. He cursed himself that he hadn't examined it sooner. He'd assumed that it would recede into the plane a slight amount and then slide back inside the plane but clearly it opened up and out of the plane. "Walter?" Paige asked concerned.

Walter looked at her, "We've got a problem. I just assumed the hatch opened into the craft, but it actually opens outwards. The wind force will most likely rip it off the plane and there is a good chance it will impact the starboard engine and almost positively it will at least hit the wing. Damn it."

Paige reached out and took his arm in her hands. "Son, isn't there anything else we can do?" Cabe asked as he stepped up, concern all over his face.

Sean cleared his throat, "Well, if you are going to be fooling this damn thing with your computers, couldn't we just keep it on board? Toss it out the door after we land?"

Walter looked back at his Dad, his eyes opened wide in surprise, "That's an excellent idea. We'd have to make sure the tablets are completely charged or hook them to chargers for the duration. Paige, go back upstairs, ask the flight attendant how many open seats there are. We'll gather all the padding from those seats if there are enough we can open one of the bins and empty most of the bags out of them. We can put the device in the bin and surround it with the foam, and then pack the bags we pull out back around it. If we do it with the right bags or we repack the bags with the right items like clothes and towels only we could muffle the explosion enough so that if it does go off only the things inside the bin will be damaged."

Walter looked at Paige, "Also tell Happy to forget Birdronee, I'll need her to start gathering the foam from the chairs, have Toby help her, we'll start pulling the bags out and going through them." He looked at both of his Dads.

As Paige went back upstairs Cabe looked at the bins, "You think we should move this one back up this way a little, closer to the door to the computer room?"

Walter nodded his head, "No place is a good place, but closer means less chance of an accident while moving the device. After we get it moved, Dad and I will start to pull out bags and empty them so we can repack them with just clothes. While we do that, would you go up and advise John that we're going to have to change what we're doing?"

Cabe nodded as they began removing the straps from the bin, "Good thing it's so cool down here, cuts down on the sweating," he laughed.

The intercom in the cargo bay clicked on and John said, "Walter, not to rush you guys, but we're coming up on just 60 minutes of fuel left, the head winds of maintaining this holding loop is killing engine efficiency especially having to keep our speed over 600 mph. From where we're circling we're going to need 36 minutes to land so we need the device taken care of in 24 minutes."

They looked at each other and began moving a bit quicker. They finally got the bin moved up closer to the door and strapped it back down. Walter opened the bin as Cabe left to go up to the Flight deck. He had to pause a moment as Paige came back down and then he hurried up the steps.

* * *

Punching in the code he pushed the door open and stepped inside. "Walter wanted me to let you know we had to change how we're dealing with the device. We're going to have to try and keep it on board until after we land. So we'll need to stop away from everything and abandon the plane and let the local bomb squad deal with it."

John swallowed hard, "Okay Cabe, when do you want to start heading into the airport?"

Cabe looked at him, "I honestly don't know, but I do know we haven't bypassed the device yet so it's still going to be a bit."

John nodded, "Did you guys get my message about fuel?"

"Yea, we did. Of course part of the problem is waiting on the tablets being set up properly before we can move the device. We're going to move it into one of the cargo bins and surround it with foam cushions from empty seats and packing it with clothes from the checked suitcases. Walter feels that will limit damage if something should fail and the device detonates." Cabe told him.

* * *

Paige looked at Walter and Sean trying to empty the bags and repack them with just clothes, "Walter, stop. If all we have left is about 20 minutes we don't have time to sort these bags, just make a bed inside and we'll pack the cushions around the device and put these bags back in."

Walter was shaking his head, "Anything in these bags not clothes could become shrapnel, and we've got to remove it first."

Paige stepped between him and the bags, "Walter, sweetheart, you've done what you could, we've got to trust in what Ralph and Sylvester are doing now and trust in the numbers you ran that it will be enough to contain most of the explosion if it doesn't work."

Walter looked into her eyes about to say something but he realized she was right. Happy came through the door carrying several cushions, Cabe was right behind her, "Hey, there are a number of other cushions over here in the stairway." Happy said.

Paige and Walter turned and went back into the Food prep area and Paige came back with several cushions as Happy, Cabe and Sean returned to get more while Walter moved several so he could get back up the stairs.

* * *

Walter walked back to their seats and looked at Ralph and Sylvester, "Guys, we don't have a lot of time left where are we?"

Ralph looked up, "Done cloning. He handed the last tablet back to Sylvester.

"This should only take a minute to transfer the code. When you plug them into the right computers, they will sync up and give John coordinates of where to take the plane, once there they will record one loop, John just has to take us back to that same set of coordinates. In between you have to patch the cables into the existing cables. When we get back to those coordinates, unplug the original cables to the device and the tablets will take over. Done," Sylvester told him as he handed him all three tablets.

* * *

Walter flew up to the main Galley and down the stairs, Happy was already in the computer room, she was working on taping the cables from the device. Walter grabbed a pair of diagonals she had laying out and began working on another cable. "Happy, once we got these wires in place I want you to go up and hold Sasha and be with Toby."

Happy looked at him, "Don't like my company?"

Walter shook his head, "We don't know if this is going to work. If it doesn't, you should be with your family."

Happy looked at Walter and nodded her head.

"Hey guys, how's it going?" Cabe asked.

"We're almost done here, Cabe, go sit with Allie and tell my Dad and Paige to go with you. Everyone should be with family in case this doesn't work." Walter told him.

"Well you should come with us then, your part of this family too." Cabe told him.

Walter shook his head, "I've got to stay here to switch these cables and move the device when we're ready. Not to mention to finish packing the bags back into the bin."

Paige pushed past Cabe, "Do you remember what I told you earlier Walter? No greater good scenarios!" She said with a lot of heat. Ralph and I deserve to be with you too if this is it. Your parents deserve to be with you, Cabe deserves to be with you if this is it."

Walter looked at her for a moment, "Paige, I understand and I don't like it, but what can we do? Who do you trust to separate these cables and move the device into the cargo bin? If it's done wrong it can go off and blow a hole into the fuselage and we're all dead. As long as everything works as we've figured I can get it into the bin and join you guys upstairs."

Paige turned to look at Sean behind Cabe, "Dad, would you and Mom look after Ralph for us, I'm staying down here to help Walter. We'll be up as soon as it's all switched."

Cabe leaned in and kissed Paige and turned and went upstairs. Sean stepped in as Happy left the room. With tears in his eyes he hugged both of his kids to him. "I don't want to make the Pattern Day journey for you two and neither does your Mother. So you do this right, you do it fast and you get back upstairs with us. Is that understood?"

They both nodded their heads as they hugged him back. As he turned to leave the room the intercom came on, "Walter, it's getting close, we've got maybe 3 more loops before our fuel drops too low."

Walter reached over and flipped a switch on the wall by the speaker in the room, "John, in a second you'll get a message on your screen giving you coordinates, loop to those and the system will record one loop, you'll need to come back to those coordinates and when you do, we'll disconnect the device. If all goes well, you'll be able to head straight for the airport at that time while Paige and I get the device into the cargo bin and secure it."

The speaker clicked, "Roger that Walter, standing by."

Walter showed Paige the cables and which computers to plug them in. He nodded and they inserted the cables and Walter hit a button on one tablet and coordinates flashed onto the screen and they felt the plane turn as John began correcting their course to arrive at the coordinates. Walter took Paige into his arms and hugged her tightly against him. "No matter the outcome, I'm such a better version of myself because of you, because of Ralph. The two of you have brought so much out of me. And you have put up with so much of my issues and disconnects. I can't begin to thank you for all that you have done and all that you have gone through for me."

Paige pressed her forehead against his, "Walter, you've given me so much. You gave me my son, if you gave me nothing else I will owe you for that for the rest of my life even if I lived to be 100. You had so much faith and belief in me. You have been there every time I was in need. You put yourself in danger so many times to save me and Ralph. You gave me a home and a family in Scorpion. You gave me your heart, and your parents."

Ralph stepped through the door and hugged his parents, followed by Sean and Louise, Cabe and Allie, Sylvester and Florence, Toby, Happy and Sasha. In one voice, "We're family, we live or die together."

**The rest of this story might be delayed, the wife is having chest pains this evening and will probably have to send her to the ER. So I will try to update as soon as I can. Sorry - Tim**


	11. Chapter 11

As the SUV pulled up outside of the County/USC Medical center Katharine put her hand on Simone's leg and looked at her, "Go check on and take care of our boy, we'll get Collins back to Homeland." Simone smiled as she nodded her head and left the SUV. Katharine watched as she entered the building, "Okay, we can go now."

They arrived at the Homeland office a few minutes later and drove down into the underground parking lot. Four agents greeted the SUV when it pulled into the director's parking spot. They roughly extracted Collins and drug him into the building and down several long halls and several stairwells. Collins was thrown into a chair and restrained. Katharine stood in the room watching. Collins was barely conscious as she walked up and lifted his chin. "You had a plan and you executed it flawlessly I have to give you kudos for that. Sad for you, my people are better than your people. So I am going to throw you a bone. Tell us everything about how you pulled it all off and you'll live your life in prison where you won't have to worry about if the next clink of metal you hear is more pain coming for you. Now, before you say anything, I know you live in a mental world most of us will never know or understand, but I can assure you, even the strongest mental barriers can be broken. And when you are locked up in a place where what happens to you doesn't matter things like your broken nose will seem like a vacation."

Collins looked up into her eyes, he could see that everything she was saying was the truth and truthfully, he was tired, not just physically but mentally. The last year he'd spent in hiding, dodging the authorities, trying to hide from the computers Scorpion had searching for him and the algorithm that he couldn't shake no matter how hard he tried. He craved peace again at least for a time; he could use it to rebuild himself and then to plot his revenge. He let out an exhausted breath and then inhaled, "I must give you congratulations deputy director, your people have wore me down. May I have a drink of water first?"

Katharine looked at her watch and gestured to one of the agents who left the room and returned shortly with a small paper cup of water, barely more than a mouthful. But Collins swallowed it gratefully as the agent put it to his lips and tilted it up.

"A month ago I'd picked up a message directed towards me. It was clear it wasn't sent by Scorpion nor after a short investigation was it sent by any law enforcement. It wasn't hard to track down, seems a certain congressman wanted some help and he was willing to help me get revenge. I was able to hack a special server in the pentagon and get information on a mission that had potential for big political fallout."

Katharine looked at him sharply, "Eaglet?"

Collins smiled, "Very good deputy director. He got an executive at Aer Lingus to agree to supply a pilot who would connect my explosive devices to the plane I wanted. And the congressman had connections for getting the two devices on the plane in the first place. Then during preflight check list, the pilot would follow the directions and connect both devices and switch the labels on the breaker box when they tried to fix the autopilot. It was simple to manipulate the airline ticket system to create a bogus over booking and a simple software hack ensured that all of Scorpion would get on that flight with free tickets to cover those not already going and free upgrade. Plus, if Aer Lingus or other parties actually paid the ransom, how sweet would that have been?"

Scowling Katharine turned away from Collins, "Congressman Phillips? And how do we deactivate your device to save the plane?"

Collins smiled, "You know, you are really more informed with things then I would have thought, yes Phillips. There is evidence back in my hideout to prove all of this. As for my device, sorry, once it was connected to the computers, there is no way to deactivate it, once that plane slows below 600 mph or drops below 33,000 feet or changes course more then 1 mile, *BOOM*!" Collins laughed, "There isn't anything you or Scorpion can do about that, they can't get into the case to see how it was designed without setting it off and there isn't anything aboard that plane that can be used to limit the force of the explosion, unlike what Scorpion has done in the past."

Katharine turned towards Collins "Where is this evidence in your hideout? And you better be telling the truth, if it isn't there or if any of my people get hurt getting it, you'll live the rest of your life needing shoulder and knee replacements."

Collins grinned, "There is a picture of a flower vase in my bedroom, and it's tucked into the back of the frame. No tricks deputy, I'm too tired right now."

Katharine looked at the agents in the room, "Two of you get him in a cell now, the other two go to this address and find this evidence he's talking about. I need it brought to me at the airport immediately."

Katharine pulled out her phone and called her assistant, "I need the plane fueled and ready to go in twenty minutes," then hung up without waiting for a confirmation. She looked at the phone and the time and dread filled her heart for a moment. She pulled up Cabe's contact info and clicked on his sat phone listing and pressed dial. On the second ring she started tapping her foot, "Come on Cabe, come on pick up the phone." She swore as it went to voicemail. She made her way out to the parking garage grabbing an agent along the way to act as her driver.

As they pulled out of the garage she called the agent on duty inside of Homeland, "This is Katharine Cooper. I want to know the status of Aer Lingus flight EI144."

"Director, we've not had any updates for a while, last we knew they were in a holding pattern about twenty minutes from Dublin." The agent told her.

Katharine let out an exasperated breath, "That isn't good enough. I need an update of the current situation this minute." She demanded.

"Yes Ma'am, I'll get an update immediately and call you right back Ma'am." The agent told her and listened for her to hang up.

* * *

Toby, Ralph, and Sasha, stood in the cargo bay while Walter, Cabe, Florence, Sean, and Happy formed a human relay chain from the device to the cargo bin. Paige and Allie stood by Happy next to the open cargo bin holding cushions. Sylvester and Louise stood next to them holding some of the bags they'd pulled out of the bin. Ralph moved up next to his Mom and took hold of the back of her shirt. Paige looked back and started to say something but seeing the unaccustomed look of fear in his eyes she smiled and winked at him.

Walter stood next to the device, his attention riveted upon the tablets he had secured to the device with the scarves Paige had gotten before he had released the strap holding it steady. He knew this was the most dangerous spot. It seemed a little strange that no one fought him about this order. If the device was going to go off it would almost as soon as he disconnected the cables to the computers. They'd taken a few of the doors off the other cargo bins and placed them against the wall and floor and ceiling of the plane in case it did go off, it might give enough of a shield that the blast would just radiate into the room and the plane could still land safely.

He'd thanked Sylvester for having programmed each tablet with a three second delay so he would have enough time to pull each cord instead of trying to pull them at the same time. He was watching the course read out on the one tablet, the plane was getting close to the original coordinates and he began to tense. So much was riding on this, the lives of all the people on the plane, the lives of all his family, not to mention the child Paige was most likely carrying right now.

The course tablet flashed "Now" and he pulled the cable out of the computer, no explosion. The altitude computer flashed "Now" and he pulled the cable out of the computer, no explosion. The speed tablet flashed "Now" and he pulled the cable out of the computer, no explosion.

He closed his eyes and let out the breath he had been holding subconsciously. John saw his screen read "Clear" and he said a small prayer as he began slowly changing course as Walter directed them so they could get the device into the cargo bin, "This is EI144, the bomb has been quarantined, we are changing course, requesting priority landing at Dublin, fuel level is critical."

Walter picked up the device and carried it to the door and handed it to Florence who in turn carried it to Sean who carried it to Cabe who got it to Happy who quickly got it in place inside the cargo bin. Paige handed her the cushions she was holding and reached back as Allie handed her the ones she was holding and turned to get the suitcase from Sylvester and he turned to get the one Louise handed to him.

Walter had come out of the room and saw everything was moving as they planned when he saw Ralph just behind Paige and he knew instantly. He circled behind everyone and came up next to Ralph and put his arm around his shoulders protectively. Ralph looked up at Walter, "Its okay buddy, we're here together." Ralph with tears in his eyes released Paige's shirt and hugged onto his Dad.

The final bag was finally in place and they closed and secured the door and they all came together in a group hug and then moved quickly back up into the plane. Happy stopped at the Flight deck door and punched in the code and opened the door and pulled Toby and Sasha inside. She pointed out the jump seat to Toby and jumped into the copilot seat and strapped in.

John looked at her, "What are you doing?"

Happy looked at him as she put on the headset, "I've got a multiengine license, I'm your copilot for the rest of this flight."

John looked back at Toby and he grinned, "She was the copilot for the plane that took us on our honeymoon. Of course that plane crashed." Toby told John as he held Sasha on his lap and she became very excited at all the instruments and their lights.

"Not funny Fungus," she looked at John, "That plane had been subjected to a electromagnetic field that crippled the plane."

John sighed and the radio came alive, "EI144 this is Dublin, proceed on heading two-one-five, you've been cleared for priority landing."

"Copy that Dublin, changing course to two-one-five," John replied.

Toby's phone vibrated and he reached into his pocket and pulled it out. He read the email that had just came in and he smiled as he carefully typed back, "Thank you. Best wishes to your staff from team Scorpion."

Because of the position of the cargo bin they had moved most of the passengers out of the Business section and with a number of the empty seats taken apart for their cushions Ralph found himself sitting on Paige's lap, but truth be told he didn't mind. He was still worried their work was sound but the wrong pocket of air or too rough of a landing could cause a cable from the tablet to come out and trigger the device. Paige and Walter had the arm between them up and they were both leaning into each other, Walter had one arm around Paige's shoulders and his other around Ralph.

Cabe and Allie were looking into each other's eyes as they held hands, "Allie, I, I don't know what is going to happen now, but I know I love you and you love me, how do you feel about us making this official after we land?"

Allie blinked in half disbelief, "Unless you aren't ready for that?" Cabe back peddled quickly, "I know this situation is dangerous, but I promise you, I'm not asking because of it, I have been thinking about me and you ever since Walter asked Paige to marry him."

Allie smiled, "I feel like I really like that idea Mr. Gallo." Cabe smiled and leaned over and kissed Allie.

Louise turned and looked at Sean and smiled as she overheard their conversation. Sean returned her smile and kissed her. "You've given me a wonderful laugh dear," Sean told her, "And a wonderful family, no matter what happens. I'll die a happy man when the time comes." He reached up and brushed away the few tears that came out of Louise's eyes.

Because of his size Sylvester wasn't able to sit with Florence and the guy next to him in business class had refused to sit out the rest of the ride in economy. Sylvester had tried several times to convince him to trade with her but he steadfastly refused. Sylvester sat there trying to think of what he could offer the guy to move but nothing was coming to mind when he thought of his favorite comic book character Super Fun Guy and his whoopee cushion of death. His stomach rumbled just a bit and so he squeezed his abdominal muscles several times and finally he was able to fart. Because of his high anxiety he knew it wasn't going to be pleasant. And almost on cue the guy grabbed his nose and Sylvester shrugged his shoulders and mouthed "Sorry."

The guy got up out of his chair and moved back into the economy section. Perhaps three minutes later Florence appeared with a smile and sat down beside Sylvester and as she buckled her belt the left over fragrance hit her nose and she looked up at Sylvester and he grinned and said "Sorry. It was the only thing I could think of to get him to move."

Florence began laughing as she took Sylvester's hand. At least she got to laugh one more time if nothing else.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your Captain speaking. We are now on approach to land at Dublin and I want to advise you as to what has been going on during this flight. A terrorist had planted a bomb on this flight but thanks to team Scorpion we've made it this far so first I want to give a big thank you to team Scorpion for their efforts to get us this far. Right now the bomb has been sequestered inside one of the cargo bins in the cargo bay. There was no way to disarm it so it's still active and there is a chance it could detonate if anything becomes dislodged when we land. As soon as we land we'll be stopping out on the runaway, the flight crew will open the doors and deploy the emergency ramps, you will be directed as to when to disembark, please follow directions and move as quickly as possible without endangering each other. As soon as you are at the bottom of the ramp move quickly towards the terminal, there will be an agent to meet you, just hang out next to them. Dublin police and bomb squad has been advised and will meet the plane and as soon as the bomb is secured and your items recovered they will be returned to you. Thank you for your attention."

**Thank you guys for your well wishes and prayers for my wife, it is greatly appreciated! I couldn't fit the complete ending into this chapter so there will be 1 more, I'll shoot for tomorrow, but no promises. You are free to find me on twitter (on my profile). Ill try to update there.**


	12. Chapter 12

John looked over at Happy, "Flaps to thirty,"

"Flaps to thirty," Happy confirmed.

They were coming in on a perfect glide, in the distance they could see the rescue trucks parked along the runway and a bit further down they saw the buses waiting on the passengers.

"Throttle back twenty percent," John said as he took hold of the handle along with Happy and they pulled it down cutting power.

"One hundred feet to ground," Happy told him.

Everyone on board took a deep breath as they saw the ground coming up and then the sweet sound of the wheels kissing the pavement in a smooth touch down and then the nose came down slowly and the front wheels made contact with the ground. The engines screamed as they were thrown in reverse and everyone felt the g force as the plane began slowly quickly, they saw the rescue trucks as they sped by and still they slowed. The flight attendants scrambled for the exits. A few more moments and the plane finally came to a stop. There was a roar as people began clapping and cheering. Almost in unison the flight attendants hit the locks and pushed the doors open and inflated the escape ramps.

Walter was duly impressed that the passengers came together and didn't panic as they uniformly vacated the plane following Brian as he called out directions. A Dublin police car was just outside the front ramp and the officers quickly took Charlene into custody as Cabe sent her down the ramp after seeing Allie safely off the plane. Walter watched as Toby and Sasha came off the plane, Sasha giggling the whole way down then Happy argued with the flight attendants about they had to leave before she could as copilot. John solved it when he ordered the flight attendants off the craft and he shook Happy's hand and watched as she disembarked. He sighed and then jumped off the plane and slid down the ramp. Walter was standing with the bomb squad explaining what he knew of the bomb and what they had done to secure it.

* * *

Finally they all boarded the final bus and rode it up to the terminal looking back at the plane as they rode. Walter with his left arm around Paige while she had her hands on Ralph's very tall shoulders. Walter moved his right hand over and sat it on Ralph's should as well. Toby stepped up, next to Paige's left side and leaned in and whispered, "Congratulations Mrs. O'Brien, you're pregnant."

Paige's eyes went wide and she turned to look at Toby and he smiled a happy smile and nodded his head." Tears immediately welled up in her eyes as she looked back at the plane.

Walter saw her look at Toby and then the tears in her eyes and he grew concerned and leaned over, "Paige?

Paige looked at Walter, the tears broke over the edge of her eyes as she smiled happily at him and leaned in and kissed him before moving her mouth to his ear and whispered, "We're pregnant Walter." Walter's eyes opened widely and he pulled Paige up into his arms and off the floor of the bus and hugged her tightly.

Toby moved back over to Happy and Sasha, "What's going on Doc?" Happy asked.

"Sorry dear, Dr Patient confidentiality." Toby told her.

Happy glared at Toby but looked back over at Walter and Paige, he still hadn't put her down and then she thought about the stop at the blood testing facility before they left and smiled. "So Paige is pregnant then?" Happy asked.

Toby smiled, "I can neither confirm nor deny that fact. Ow, my short rib," he cried out as Happy with drew her elbow.

"I'm a genius Fungus, I wasn't really asking." Happy said.

Allie's eyes opened at what she had inadvertently heard. She pulled Cabe closer and leaned into and whispered, "Paige IS pregnant." She said as quietly as she could but still over enthusiastically to him while stressing the word is.

Cabe looked over at Paige and Walter, "Naw, couldn't be." But Allie kept shaking her head and the longer he stared at them he realized she was telling him the truth, nothing made Walter that happy.

Ralph had turned to look at his parents; Walter, tears running down his cheeks was kissing Paige over and over as he held her off the floor in his arms. Normally parents displaying public affection like this would cause any kid Ralph's age to turn away but Ralph hadn't seen his mother or his new father this happy before and he relished in that joy and affection.

Louise had watched the display and tears began to run down her face as well. Sean looked at his wife and then at Walter and Paige. "What is it Love?"

Louise turned to Sean and took his hands in hers and kissed him. "I hope you like being called Grandpa, we're going to have another one within the next year."

Sean looked at his wife incredulously, "You're saying, saying that Walter, that Paige is?"

Louise smiled but laughed at her husbands fluster, "I'm saying Paige is expecting."

Sean smiled and hugged his wife tightly, "Nothing could make me happier," he told her.

* * *

Katharine sat her in SUV looking at the documents the two agents had brought to her from Collins's hideout. "This is pretty damning," she said aloud. She looked at the driver, "Get me to the airport now."

As they traveled the streets of LA Katharine's phone rang, "Director Cooper."

"Director, I've confirmed that EI144 should be on the ground in minutes." The agent told her.

Katharine let out a breath, "Thank you, keep me updated."

As she hung up her phone it began to ring and she looked down "Scorpion – Cabe Gallo" read the display. "Cabe," she answered questioning.

"Katharine, I wanted to let you know, we're safe on the ground and in the terminal." Cabe told her.

Katharine rolled her eyes, money well spent on our information services she thought. "Cabe, I am so glad to hear that. Everyone is okay," she asked.

Cabe laughed, "Better then okay, apparently Paige is pregnant."

Katharine's eyes went wide, "Oh Cabe, that's great news. Now you guys have a great vacation and come back home safe."

"I was wondering if I could ask a favor Katharine." Cabe said seriously.

Katharine smiled, "Of course you can ask. Now whether I will agree to it is another story."

Cabe laughed, "Fair enough, our pilot John, the president of Aer Lingus just fired him for allowing Scorpion to handle the situation with the bomb. I thought maybe Homeland could use a good pilot."

Katharine couldn't have been more shocked if Cabe had just sat down in her SUV in a Mohawk. "Cabe, of course, tell him to come see me as soon as he gets back to the States." Katharine sat thinking about the past 11 hours and all that happened. How one man's hatred and another's desire for power had jeopardized so many people. As she boarded the plane she told the pilot she was ready to take off.

"As Chairman of the Armed Services committee I call this private session to order." Henry Vicall said. "We have a last minute change to this meeting; before we begin the matter at hand the chair calls Deputy Security Director Katharine Cooper to the stand."

"I object!" Congressman Phillips said in heat and almost came out of his seat.

"Sit down Congressman, if a Homeland director wishes to address this committee they will be received in gratitude for the service they perform." Vicall told him.

Katharine sat down at the stand, "Mr. Chairman, honorable committee members. Please excuse the tired look in my eyes; I've been up most the night dealing with a terrorist situation regarding Aer Lingus airlines flight EI144 that left LAX yesterday and arrived safely in Dublin a few hours ago thanks to the efforts of team Scorpion. I was made aware of this meeting this morning at around three am. And I am here to offer evidence that Rusty Mitchell and his team were operating under presidential authority in a mission known as Eaglet. Furthermore I wish to submit to this committee evidence of a conspiracy by a member of this committee into the aforementioned terrorist attack."

Everyone drew in a sharp breath. And Philips tried to quietly slide out of his seat and move towards the door when he saw two agents guarding the door. "Where are you going Congressman Philips? The Chair hasn't given you permission to leave." Congressman Vicall told him.

"Director, please go on." Congressman Vicall told her.

"Under the authority of Homeland I investigated these claims and I now present these documents to show that President George HW Bush had ordered the attack based on faulty data which resulted in the loss of life that day and shows that Colonel Mitchell and his men were in no way responsible because of that order based on faulty data. And I present this evidence which collaborates the testimony of Mark Collins a terrorist that Congressman Phillips reached out to Collins and did conspire and arranged for two explosive devices to be loaded upon EI144, and that a third party was brought in who arranged for a pilot to assist in this attack for information of a military operation that had gone off badly that he could use to further his political career."

The master at arms collected the paperwork and brought it up to Congressman Vicall. "Master at arms, please take Congressman Philips into custody, I'm adjourning this meeting for one hour while the committee deliberates on this information."

Katharine stepped out into the hallway and got the coffee one of her agents had brought over for her. She sat down on the bench in the hall and sipped it, "Perfect, thank you Andrews."

"My pleasure Director," Andrews told her.

It was perhaps forty minutes later when Congressman Vicall came around a corner and Katharine stood up, "Please sit Director," he told her as he too sat down. "We've gone over all the information you provided and the hearing is being dropped, there won't be another investigation into this matter, well maybe one into how the CIA screwed up the intelligence. But Colonel Mitchell and his men are cleared of any wrong doing."

Katharine smiled, "Thank you Congressman Vicall, I'm relived. The Colonel and his men have been top assets inside Homeland since they left the service. What about Philips?"

Congressman Vicall nodded, "Philips is another story. This is high treason, we've turned him and the evidence over to the FBI, they are seeking the person(s) who got the bombs onto that plane and they are reaching out to Ireland for help arresting whoever it was that arranged for that pilot to assist in this matter."

Katharine smiled, "Thank you Congressman, that's good news. I guess I better get back to LA."

Vicall stood with her, "You know, your name has come up as a possible replacement for Director of Homeland. And this will certainly cement your chances, are you interested?"

Katharine looked at him for a moment then smiled, "You know, four years ago I would have jumped at that. But to be honest, I have loved my job since I began working with Scorpion and I really enjoy working with them and I am afraid if my position was to change, I might lose that. I'd rather stay where I am and keep doing the good we're doing than to move up."

Congressman Vicall nodded as he extended his hand. Katharine took it and then said goodbye. "Umm, Director, would you like to take this one back with you?" Vicall grinned as Nick came forward.

Katharine smiled, "Absolutely."

* * *

Team Scorpion had returned to the US, the flight had been perfectly boring and they had all been able to relax and now they pulled up outside the Garage, "So ends a good day." Toby said as Walter unlocked the door.

They all filed in quickly but then froze inside, a large banner blocked their way, "Welcome Home Scorpion" it read with a multitude of balloons all over it. They all smiled and just then the lights flicked on "Surprise!" Katharine, John, Rusty, Simone and Nick shouted out loud as Nick cut the line holding the one side of the banner up. As the banner fell they saw the inside of the Garage had been completely redecorated. Every bit of bad concrete replaced, every window replaced, every pipe replace and covered over, every appliance replaced. The entire Garage looked like a modern office now.

Team Scorpion stood awestruck at the beauty of the Garage. "I thought you guys deserved more than just a good payday for what you did for flight EI144 and so did the president of Aer Lingus after I spoke with him, so he graciously paid to have all of this done."

They all cautiously moved in away from the door still staring and marveling at the changes in the Garage. They were all tongue tied and dumbfounded, except for Ralph who ran full tilt up the ramp to the loft which he found had been completely redone and turned into a real apartment, complete with master bedroom and bathroom, two other bedrooms and bathrooms. His grin widened as he looked at the entertainment center in the new living room and then he ran to the stairs, "Mom! You got to see the loft, it's more beautiful then you'll believe!"

He came running down the stairs and saw everyone shaking hands and hugging. He stepped up to Katharine, "Thank you for this, my Mom really deserves that." He said as he looked up at the loft.

Katharine smiled back, "Ralph, it was my pleasure."

Ralph looked into her eyes, "I'm curious, why is there an extra bedroom up there?"

Katharine looked over at Paige and Walter smiling, "Well, sometimes a family expands and you might need a bedroom for someone else."

Ralph looked at his Mom as his eyes narrowed and he looked back at Katharine, "You mean?"

Katharine's twinkled, "You never know."

Ralph ran over to his Mom and threw his arms around her and hugged her tightly. "Oh, Honey, what's this for?" Paige asked Ralph hugging him tightly.

Ralph smiled, "Just because I felt the need." He then turned and jumped into Walter's arms and hugged him tightly surprising him. Walter cradled him to his torso. "Thank you Dad, you and Mom have made me very happy."

Walter held his son looking at Paige in puzzlement as Paige just shook her head. "Thank you buddy, I wish I knew what we had done that has made you so happy, we'd do it all the time." Walter told him.

Ralph threw his head back and laughed hysterically for several long minutes.

* * *

**And so ends this story, I hope you have enjoyed reading it at least as much as I have enjoyed telling it. I have several story ideas running around my head and I am not sure where I will go next. One story is Scorpion but it won't be based on this alternative timeline. Another one is based on this alternative but with a twist. And I have another idea that isn't Scorpion at all. **

**Thank you for giving of your time to read what has been floating around inside my head and a very special thank you to those of you who have written back on my stories and their chapters. Feed back whether it is flowery or simple is greatly appreciated so thank you! **


	13. Chapter 13

**My apologies, I had completely forgotten to write this part.**

Allie turned off her alarm and stretched, she wasn't ready for the vacation to be over as her mind rushed back almost two weeks ago.

* * *

She was seated in a small antechamber inside of the small parish in Walter's home village in Ireland touching up her makeup, her sister standing there with her as her maid of honor.

"I can't believe Aer Lingus gave me a free round trip ticket to be here with you on your wedding day." Stephanie told her sister.

Allie smiled, "Well, Scorpion saved them a lot of money and bad PR stopping the bomb, so I think it was a nice gesture, but I'm glad it made it possible for you to be here Sis."

Stephanie smiled, "Me too, Cabe's a great guy and he's getting an even better woman."

"Thanks," Allie said as she smiled, "I never expected to be taking the plunge at this stage of my life."

"So did the priest really make you sign paperwork allowing any children to be raised Catholic to perform the ceremony?" Stephanie asked.

Allie laughed, "I know right? Given my age and the age difference between us, even if we tried, the odds are almost mathematically zero. But, while Cabe is down to Earth, he's still a believer and his standing with the Church has meaning so I did it for him. I could always teach them what science says and they can make up their own minds." Allie looked at her sister in the mirror, "I think I'm ready."

Stephanie pulled her chair back as Allie stood. She looked out the door and nodded at the alter boy who stood in the vestibule and he gestured to the pianist inside the hall and she began playing "Memories are Made of This". The priest gestured and the attendants all rose and slowly Stephanie came from around the corner and walked the short distance to the alter and stepped up next to Paige and Happy and then Cabe saw Allie as she stepped into view. She paused for a moment for effect and then fixing her eyes on Cabe she smiled and began to slowly move up the aisle.

* * *

Allie rolled onto her side, placing her head on Cabe's chest; she snuggled against him, his left arm hugging her tight against his side. Her thoughts drifted back again.

* * *

Allie reached the alter Cabe extended his nervous hands and took her hands in his after she passed her bouquet to her sister. Behind Cabe stood Sylvester, Walter and Toby, while he'd been willing to pick Walter as his best man, he felt choosing one son over the others would cause some bad blood. So he reverted to the solution Happy used when she faced that same situation. Toby and Sylvester really figured he would choose Walter but when he picked them all they were elated. Paige had helped Walter to see the wisdom in his decision and that Cabe's love for him was deeper than that for the other two.

Cabe was relieved that Allie was content with a standard service, public speaking wasn't his forte and expressing himself in such a fashion, well it just wasn't him. But to this day if asked to give an account of the service, Cabe was at a loss, he heard the words and he answered appropriately when he was suppose to, but, how he has no clue. He remembered her walking down the aisle, taking her hand, the next, popping a bottle of champagne.

Staying in Walter's old bedroom for their honeymoon had been a little weird, Happy and Toby had Meagan's old room, Sylvester and Florence had stayed with Uncle Tobin and Walter and Paige had slept in the loft of the barn while Ralph and Sasha had the couches down in the front room. The barn might have been an interesting visit, but for two weeks, Allie was glad Walter and Paige had that 'honor'.

Walter's family and friends had all been wonderful during their stay, seemed like there had been a party everyday. After hearing the story about how team Scorpion had saved the small village on that Pattern day she wasn't surprised in how they all came together to celebrate and embrace all of them on this visit. She'd actually been rather sad to come back. While she wasn't of Irish descent, the country was beautiful and the history was very colorful.

* * *

"Cabe, do we have to get up? Can't we just stay home one more day?" Allie asked her groom.

Cabe chuckled, "Don't tempt me. This is the longest Scorpion has gone without the wheels falling off."

Almost as if on cue Cabe's phone rang, Cabe groaned, "Me and my big mouth," he complained. He reached over and grabbed his phone, "Gallo."

"Hey Cabe, is your refrigerator running," Toby asked.

"What, Doc? Yea, why?" Cabe answered all confused.

"Well you better hurry up and catch it!" Toby replied and hung up quickly.

Cabe looked at his phone and then just smiled as he sat it back on the night stand.

"What did Toby want?" Allie asked as she snuggled back into his side.

"He was attempting to make a joke." Cabe told her with his smile still on his face as he hugged her tightly.


End file.
